Design and Fabrication of Silk Templated Electronic Yarns and Applications in Multifunctional Textiles

Abstract

Summary E-textiles are of interest in a variety of fields, such as wearable electronics and real-time healthcare monitoring. Critical challenges remain, related to design and fabrication techniques to meet the varied requirements for e-textiles. As an ancient and incomparable textile fiber, natural silk fibers can be considered to address these issues. However, processing challenges have thus far precluded the realization of electrically conducting natural silks. Here, we report a scalable dip-coating strategy to construct conductive silk fibers (CSFs). Natural silk fibers were functionalized by a tailor-made carbon nanotube (CNT) paint, which selectively etches the surface of the silk fibers without destroying the internal structure of the fibers. The CSFs maintained the properties of both the silks and CNTs, with high mechanical performance, super-hydrophobicity, solvent resistance, and thermal sensitivity. The CSFs can be automatically woven into fabrics, resulting in textiles sensitive to surrounding physical stimuli, including force, strain, temperature, and solvents.