Fabrication of the Ag/silk fibers for electrically conductive textiles

Abstract

As a good substrate, silk fibers are widely employed in the field of intelligent textiles. In this work, the surface of silk fibers were firstly roughened by formic acid and sensitized by tannic acid, and then the silver ammonia solution was reduced by glucose to synthesize nano-silver in situ on the silk surface to obtain composite conductive silk fibers with resistivity as low as 0.24 mΩ·cm. It was proved by scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) tests that a uniformly deposited nano-silver layer was fabricated on the silk surface. The prepared silk fibers had stable mechanical, thermal, electrical, and antibacterial properties and can be used for human sensing.