Abstract
Flexible fibers composed of a conductive material mixed with a polymer matrix are useful in wearable electronic devices. However, the presence of the conductive material often reduces the flexibility of the fiber, while the conductivity may be affected by environmental factors such as water and moisture. To address these issues, we developed a new conductive fiber by mixing carbon nanotubes (CNT) with a polyurethane (PU) matrix. A silane ((heptadecafluoro–1,1,2,2–tetra–hydrodecyl)trichlorosilane) was added to improve the strain value of the fiber from 155% to 228%. Moreover, silica aerogel particles were embedded on the fiber surface to increase the water contact angle (WCA) and minimize the effect of water on the conductivity of the fiber. As a result, the fabricated PU-CNT-silane-aerogel composite microfiber maintained a WCA of ~140° even after heating at 250 °C for 30 min. We expect this method of incorporating silane and aerogel to help the development of conductive fibers with high flexibility that are capable of stable operation in wet or humid environments.
Highlights
High-performance sensors in the form of flexible and stretchable conductive fibers can be woven or stitched into a commercial cloth or applied directly to the human body
In Step I, conductive and flexible PC composite microfibers were fabricated by combining the flexible PU with highly conductive carbon nanotubes (CNT)
When a large amount of CNT was uniformly distributed throughout the PU matrix, adjacent nanotubes became interconnected to form a conductive CNT network
Summary
High-performance sensors in the form of flexible and stretchable conductive fibers can be woven or stitched into a commercial cloth or applied directly to the human body. The associated textiles (fiber, yarn, or fabrics) tend to display good resistance to repeated deformation These properties have been utilized in strain sensors to obtain real-time mechanical feedback in the fields of personal health monitoring, human motion detection, and soft robotics [1,2,3,4]. Such sensors were applied to the human body to detect ultraviolet (UV) light, chemicals, humidity, and temperature change, either as a portable device or a patch attached to the skin [5,6,7]. Flexible conductive fibers have attracted interest for use in supercapacitors, interconnects, photovoltaic cells, light-emitting diodes, and artificial skin [8,9,10,11,12]. It remains challenging to make flexible conductive fibers with good mechanical properties and durability
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