Electroactive actuators including materials or devices can respond to an electric field, current, or voltage with a corresponding change in their size or shape. Recent researches show an emerging interest in the electroactive polymers
actuating systems because of their proper electrochemical properties for actuators and artificial muscles. The current
research involves fabrication of core–sheath polyacrylonitrile (PAN)–polyaniline (PANi) nanofibers containing up to 15%
TiO2 nanoparticles in core, as well as the investigation of the mechanical and electrochemical properties of the prepared
nanofibrous bundles. In the first step, high electrical conductive PANi polymer was synthesized through the oxidative
polymerization method. TiO2 nanoparticles were added to the core of nanofibers to improve both mechanical and
electrical properties of the produced nanofibrous bundles. Synthesized PANi was used to produce aligned nanofibrous
bundles comprising PAN–TiO2 (0–15%) as core and PAN–PANi as sheath with an average diameter of 199–350 nm. The
structural and physical properties of nanofibrous bundles were studied by Fourier-transform infrared, scanning electron
microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy techniques. Mechanical and cyclic voltammetric tests were performed
on core–sheath PAN/PANi samples to evaluate the mechanical and electrochemical properties, respectively. According
to the results, fabricated bundles of coaxial PAN–TiO2/ PAN–PANi nanofibers is highly recommended as a candidate for
electroactive actuator because of high electrical conductivity. PAN/ PAN–PANi nanofibers demonstrate an oxidation/
reduction peak of 0.8 V with a maximum current of 14.0 105 A related to PANi and PAN–TiO2(10%)/ PAN–PANi has
a maximum current of 11.0 105 A with a peak at 0.8 V because of the presence of PANi.