Fabrication of durable and conductive cotton fabric using silver nanoparticles and PEDOT:PSS through mist polymerization

Abstract

Conductive cotton fabrics are widely used in electromagnetic shields and soft sensors because of their excellent softness and comfort. Generally, conductive cotton fabrics are prepared by depositing an inorganic conductive coating or an organic conductive polymer coating on them. However, due to the complex structure of cotton fabrics, these conductive coatings easily fall off and fracture under external forces, resulting in a sharp decline in the conductive properties of the finished fabrics. In the present work, L-cysteine was used as a binder to immobilize Ag NPs on cotton fabric. Ag NPs were covered by PEDOT:PSS to prevent them from falling off and cracking. As a result, the surface resistance of finished fabric was arrived at 8.7 Ω/sq. The finished fabric also exhibited excellent electromagnetic shielding effectiveness, with an electromagnetic shielding reached at 27.1 dB. Moreover, the composite coating significantly improved the durability of electrical conductivity and electromagnetic shielding properties of the finished fabric. In addition, mist polymerization was used to retain the inherent properties of the cotton fabric. We believe that the proposed method provides a new direction for the preparation of conductive cotton fabrics with a high stability.