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The rapid developments in conductive polymers with flexible electronics over the past years have generated noteworthy attention among researchers and entrepreneurs. Conductive polymers have the distinctive capacity to conduct electricity while still maintaining the lightweight, flexible, and versatile characteristics of polymers. They are crucial for the creation of flexible electronics or gadgets that can stretch, bend, and adapt to different surfaces have sparked momentous interest in electronics, energy storage, sensors, smart textiles, and biomedical applications. This review article offers a comprehensive overview of recent advancements in conductive polymers over the last 15 years, including a bibliometric analysis. The properties of conductive polymers are summarized. Additionally, the fabrication processes of conductive polymer-based materials are discussed, including vacuum filtering, hydrothermal synthesis, spray coating, electrospinning, in situ polymerization, and electrochemical polymerization. The techniques have been presented along with their advantages and limitations. The multifunctional applications of conductive polymers are also discussed, including their roles in energy storage and conversion (e.g., supercapacitors, lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), and sodium-ion batteries (SIBs)), as well as in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), organic solar cells (OSCs), conductive textiles, healthcare monitoring, and sensors. Future scope and associated challenges have also been mentioned for further development in this field.

Natural dyes exhibit a low dye uptake when cellulosic fiber dyeing is carried out using a conventional water bath dyeing process. In this research, cotton fabric was exhaust dyed in a microemulsion dyebath containing cacao husk extracts dye and decamethylcyclopentasiloxane (D5) to achieve higher dye exhaustion percentage on cotton fiber, which is an environmentally beneficial dyeing process. The adsorption behavior of cacao husk extract dye in a D5 microemulsion system was investigated under conditions of varied dye mass (1–8% o.w.f), dyeing time (5–500 min), and dyeing temperatures (333–373 K). Kinetic modelling of cacao husk extracts dye/D5 adsorption on cotton fiber was studied by fitting experimental data to pseudo first-order and pseudo second-order kinetics, and the intraparticle diffusion model. Early results indicated that the kinetic model of adsorption of cacao husk extracts dye on cotton fiber followed the pseudo second-order model. Langmuir, Freundlich, and Dubinin–Radushkevich adsorption isotherm models were employed to analyze the adsorption isotherms, and the results showed that the adsorption process fit well with the Langmuir model compared to the Freundlich isotherm. The mean adsorption energy from the Dubinin–Radushkevich isotherm model implied that adsorption of the cacao husk extracts onto cotton was accompanied with a physical process. The values of standard enthalpy (ΔH° > 0), standard entropy (ΔS° > 0), and Gibbs free energy (ΔG° < 0) strongly reflected that the adsorption of the cacao husk extracts onto cotton was thermodynamically favourable and feasible. Thus, waterless dyeing of cotton fabric using a natural dye/D5 system explores a sustainable dyeing technology with higher dye exhaustion percentage.Graphic abstract

The conventional dyeing process requires a substantial amount of auxiliaries and water, which leaches hazardous colored effluents to the environment. Herein, a newly developed sustainable spray dyeing system has been proposed for cotton fabric in the presence of reactive dyes, which has the potential to minimize the textile dyeing industries environmental impact in terms of water consumption and save significant energy. The results suggest that fresh dye solution can be mixed with an alkali solution before spray dyeing to avoid the reactive dye hydrolysis phenomenon. After that, drying at 60–100 °C, wet fixation treating for 1–6 min, and combined treatments (wet fixation + drying) were sequentially investigated and then dye fixation percentages were around 63–65%, 52–70%, and above 80%, respectively. Following this, fixation conditions were optimized using L 16 orthogonal designs, including wet fixation time, temperature, dye concentration, and pH with four levels where the “larger-the-better” function was selected to maximize the dye fixation rate. Additionally, the color uniformity and wash and rubbing fastnesses were at an acceptable level when both treatments were applied. Finally, the dyes were hydrolyzed after wet fixation, and the hydrolysis percentages were enhanced after the drying process.

Intrinsically conducting polymers ICPs can be combined with further electrochemically active materials into composites for use as active masses in supercapacitor electrodes. Typical examples are inspected with particular attention to the various roles played by the constituents of the composites and to conceivable synergistic effects. Stability of composite electrode materials, as an essential property for practical application, is addressed, taking into account the observed causes and effects of materials degradation.

Graphene and related materials (graphene oxide, reduced graphene oxide) as a subclass of carbon materials and their composites have been examined in various functions as materials in supercapacitor electrodes. They have been suggested as active masses for electrodes in electrochemical double-layer capacitors, tested as conducting additives for redox-active materials showing only poor electronic conductivity, and their use as a coating of active materials for corrosion and dissolution protection has been suggested. They have also been examined as a corrosion-protection coating of metallic current collectors; paper-like materials prepared from them have been proposed as mechanical support and as a current collector of supercapacitor electrodes. This entry provides an overview with representative examples. It outlines advantages, challenges, and future directions.