Abstract
Leather is a material that has been used in different applications for centuries. Today, living in the era of high-technology, we are surrounded by smart products. For this reason, traditional products must be changed or improved in order to support and make us more comfortable while using them. For instance, the touch screen display in electronics products is a smart phone’s or a tablet computer’s primary input device. Still, traditional leather will not function properly in a cold climate or other specific conditions. To make it conductive in such conditions, the double in-situ polymerization of the pyrrole coating method was used. The aim of this study was to observe the electrical properties of conductive leather. At the same time, it stands up to a wide range of different air temperatures, and relative and absolute humidity. These properties are essential because designers and textile engineers should be familiar with them when they decide to use materials in different smart products. Electricity conductivity tests were carried out in year-round temperatures from 7.5 °C to 28.1 °C, with a relative humidity from 18% to 77% and a vapor air concentration from 2.77 g/kg to 12.46 g/kg. The so-called “multiple-step method” was used to test leather’s electrical resistivity for the first time. The method considers a material’s compressional properties and provides an indicator inherent for a material’s electrical properties, regardless of the mass and shape of samples. The results showed a strong dependence between water vapor air concentration and electrical resistivity, described using the formula ρ = 1.3103 H−1.04 Ωm, with a correlation coefficient of 0.87. There was no relation between relative humidity and electrical resistivity, and resistivity and air temperature. Also, the results confirmed again that changes in the shape of the sample used during tests did not influence the measurement’s results, but supported the appropriateness of the measuring method.
Highlights
Leather is a material that has been used in different applications for centuries
The results showed a strong dependence between water vapor air concentration and electrical resistivity, described using the formula ρ = 1.3103 H−1.04 Ωm, with a correlation coefficient of 0.87
There was no relation between relative humidity and electrical resistivity, and resistivity and air temperature
Summary
Leather is a natural product made by converting animal hides and skins using tannage [1] This material has been used in different applications for centuries after numerous mechanical and chemical operations. A great deal of research has been done on the transformation of textiles into conductive materials, including leather in the last decade In this way, electrically conductive materials can be applied to the leather’s surface to be used as a touching operator for a capacitive touch screen panel. We typically take into account standard air temperature and humidity conditions for textile materials’ physical and mechanical properties It is important for applications of conductive leather to know what happens to the electrical properties in a wide range of air temperatures and relative and absolute humidity. We attempt to give more information about this smart leather to designers and textile engineers, who should be familiar with these properties when they decide to use this smart material in different applications such as clothing, bags, footwear, automobile seats or furniture
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