Characterization of carbon nanofiber (CNF)/polymer composite coated on cotton fabrics prepared with various circuit patterns

Hyelim Kim,Sunhee Lee

doi:10.1186/s40691-017-0120-2

Abstract

Fabric heating elements with carbon nanofiber (CNF)/Poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF-HFP) composite coated cotton fabrics were prepared with various circuit patterns with the aim of providing more flexible and uniform heating performance compared to conventional fabric heating elements. To investigate the properties of the fabric heating element according to the pattern condition, patterns consisting of 3, 5, and 7 horizontal lines, i.e., P3, P5 and P7, were respectively used; and subsequently, vertical lines were added to the horizontal lines, i.e., 2P3, 2P5 and 2P7, respectively. P0 was used as the referencesample. P0 showed a surface resistance of 1.2 × 103 Ω/sq at a current of 0.85 A and an electric heating temperature of 76.9 °C. P3 and 2P3 showed better electrical and electric heating properties than other samples, showing surface resistance values of 1.0 × 103 and 1.2 × 103 Ω/sq at the current values of 0.20 and 0.25 A, and surface temperatures of 71.8 and 75.7 °C, respectively. Although the currents applied to P3 and 2P3 were lower than that applied to P0, the electrical heating properties were modified to be similar. In terms of mechanical properties and water repellency, it was shown that the coated fabrics had higher values compared to the uncoated fabric. It was thus suggested that a small amount of CNF/PVDF-HFP composite can be used to manufacture an electric heating element with excellent performance.

Highlights

E-textiles have been receiving significant interest in terms of their applicability to wearable smart devices, because textiles are breathable, flexible and lightweight, yet strong and robust (Åkerfeldt et al 2014; Asghar et al 2016)
This study found that the electrical properties of carbon nanofiber (CNF)/PVDF-HFP coated nonwoven fabrics increased with increasing CNFs content, and of silk fabric increased with 4% CNFs content
The results showed that the CNF/PVDF-HFP coated on cotton fabrics had higher tensile strength than the uncoated cotton fabric

Summary

Introduction

E-textiles have been receiving significant interest in terms of their applicability to wearable smart devices, because textiles are breathable, flexible and lightweight, yet strong and robust (Åkerfeldt et al 2014; Asghar et al 2016). Wearable smart devices incorporating e-textiles are used in healthcare, sports, military, wearable displays, biomonitoring and power storage devices and so on For these various applications, efforts are continuing to integrate functional nanomaterials with common textiles to provide flexible, lightweight materials and to improve electrical properties. A number of studies on the preparation of electric heating elements using conductive nanocomposites have been carried out Such materials have electrical conductivity based on the types of the functional composites, like metal particles such as silver (Ag) (Stempien et al 2016; Wang et al 2016b), and copper (Cu) (Roh and Kim 2016; Wang and Ruan 2016), and conductive polymers such as polyaniline (Wang et al 2015), and polypyrrole (Wang et al 2016a). Due to their availability in large quantities with a consistent quality, their cost is significantly lower than that of carbon nanotubes (Al-Saleh and Sundararaj 2009)

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Methods

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Conclusion