Elaboration of a Conductive Textile by Coating for Clothes Equipped with Fourth-Generation Photovoltaic Cells

Abstract

Conducting polymer coated in textiles possess a wide range of electrical properties. The surface resistivity is influenced by concentrations of the reactants, thickness of the coating, nature of the substrate surface, extent of penetration of the polymer into the textile structure and the strength of the binding of the coating to the textile surface. Low resistivity in fabric results from highly doped thicker coatings that penetrate well into the textile structure thus enabling good electrical contact between fibers. In this study, we had chosen copper as conductor polymer for coating. The electrical conductivity is influenced by the thickness of coating paste, the nature of the substrate surface. The thickness of the paste and the concentration of the copper were studied in this paper. Furthermore, the electrical surface resistance decreased from 68 MΩ to 8 MΩ with decreasing in coating thickness. However, the thickness of coated fabric is very important factor to determine conductivity and application of textile. In addition, we had noticed that the airflow is affected by the coating thickness which the penetration of the airflow differs from the lower thickness to the higher one. This study confirm that we can use coating woven fabric to develop a textile substrate responding to characteristics such as electrical resistance, drapability, air permeability and tensile strength, which are particularly important to be used as a support for flexible photovoltaic cells in clothes.