Polypyrrole Treated Leather and Triboelectricity

Leather has been used for various applications for thousands of years and it remains popular today for the making of apparel, footwear, furniture and accessories, thanks to its durability, flexibility and good insulation. But beyond its traditional properties, leather can also accept conducting polymers to enrich its electrical properties. In this study, leather samples were treated with polypyrrole to increase their electrical conductivity. Their triboelectric potentials were studied using a measuring triboelectric generator which combines sliding and vertical contact motions. The results were characterized by low voltages in the range of 53 mV to 115 mV. Thus it was seen that the hereby applied in situ polymerization of pyrrole on leather did not provide significant triboelectric outcomes. The polypyrrole treated leather samples which underwent the double in situ polymerization provided slighter lower voltages. This study constitutes a trigger for further research on the area of the triboelectric potentials of leather.