Mussel‐Inspired Flexible, Durable, and Conductive Fibers Manufacturing for Finger‐Monitoring Sensors

Chuang Zhu,Yi Li,Evelyn Chalmers,Xinyi Guan,Xuqing Liu,Xi Wang

doi:10.1002/admi.201801547

Abstract

AbstractHere a bioinspired facile and versatile method is reported for fabricating highly durable, washable, and electrically conductive fibers and yarns. Self‐polymerized dopamine plays as adherent layers for substrates and then captures Pd2+ catalyst for subsequent metal deposition on substrates. The Pd2+ ions are chelated and partially reduced to nanoparticles by polydopamine (PDA)‐modified substrates and the catalytic performance is investigated in surface electroless deposition. Importantly, this is the first report about PDA as both ligand and enhancement in Pd catalyst system, and the mechanism of their excellent catalytic performance is studied by X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy. This approach can be extended as a general method for fabricating conductors from all kinds of substrates and precursory research about PDA/Pd catalyst application in surface catalysis.

Highlights

In recent years, fiber-based wearable electronics such as fiber-shaped energy harvesting and storage devices, wearable displays, deformable antenna and fiber computers/processors have attracted a great deal of attention.[1,2,3,4,5,6] For realizing these devices, one critical step is the fabrication of conductive components such as interconnects on flexible and stretchable fibers/fiber assemblies.[7]
PDA nano-films are first coated on fiber surfaces by immersing them into an alkaline aqueous solution
PDA-modified fibers anchor the catalyst via ion chelation and metal nanoparticles are deposited onto the catalytic area, resulting in the formation of polymer-bridged conductive composites

Summary

Introduction

Fiber-based wearable electronics such as fiber-shaped energy harvesting and storage devices, wearable displays, deformable antenna and fiber computers/processors have attracted a great deal of attention.[1,2,3,4,5,6] For realizing these devices, one critical step is the fabrication of conductive components such as interconnects on flexible and stretchable fibers/fiber assemblies.[7]. Secondary reactions can be used to produce a variety of ad-layers on the top of PDA, including metal films by electroless metallization.[21] In some reports, silver (Ag) was coated on different fibers, such as polyester (PET), meta-aramid, glass, cotton and polyurethane, via PDA-assisted electroless deposition (ELD).[22,23,24,25,26] in accordance with Zheng’s review work,[27] silver, as a conductive coating material, is much more expensive than copper and nickel. We report here a simple, versatile and scalable approach for preparing highly durable, washable and electrically conductive fibers and yarns by electroless nickel (Ni) plating on fiber surfaces modified with PDA as adhesive layers. The as-made conductive yarns can be demonstrated as interconnects to power light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and can be used to track finger motions In principle, this effective approach can be extended as a general method for producing conductors from all kinds of substrates

The Graft of PDA onto Substrates and Catalyst Immobilization

Conclusion

Experimental Section Materials