Electrically-driven textiles using hierarchical aramid fiber

Abstract

High strength and flexible electronic textiles show promise in aerospace, robotics, and extreme environment applications, while it is indispensable to develop functionally integrated fiber building blocks with durable materials performance. Here we report multifunctional sensory e-textiles driven by using copper-grafted polyaramid (Kevlar®) fiber networks for the integrated electromagnetic interference shielding, thermal and pressure sensing. The hierarchical structural design and synthesis of flexible conductive networks is accomplished via the synergistic coordination between molecular copper complex and Kevlar® fibers, which facilitate long-term cyclability, stability, and washability. Superior Joule heating capabilities with a rapid thermal response under a low driving voltage (with a heating rate of 6 ºC/s and a cooling-down rate of 5.8 ºC/s), together with a high level of EMI shielding (71 dB from 8 to 13 GHz), resulting from its multilayered, vertically-aligned structure with continuous percolation of conductive coating. This work presents a new and feasible grafting approach for the large-scale fabrication of multifunctional wearable e-textiles.