Metal-nanowire coated threads for conductive textiles

Abstract

The emerging area of e-textiles requires electrically conductive threads. We demonstrate that nylon and cotton threads can be made conductive by coating their surfaces with random networks of solution-synthesized silver nanowires. A resistance of 0.8 Ω/cm was achieved and can be engineered by varying the density of the nanowire coating. Because the nanowires are 35 nm in diameter, and the mesh structure does not cover the entire surface like a thin-film, less metal is used compared to conventional silver-coated conductive threads. The nanowire coating is less than 5% of the weight of the typical silver thin-film coatings used in commercial conductive thread. The nanowire-coated thread is also more mechanically flexible, with its resistance increasing only 16% after 200 bending cycles while the resistance of the commercial conductive thread increased by more than 300%.978-1-4799-5622-7/$31.00 ©2014 IEEE

A Review of Conductive Metal Nanomaterials as Conductive, Transparent, and Flexible Coatings, Thin Films, and Conductive Fillers: Different Deposition Methods and Applications

“…Changing the duration of these steps controls the thickness of the film. Studies have reported that dip coating was used effectively to produce Ag NWs [64,65] conductive thin films.…”

“…Moreover, using metal NPs as a coating on insulator thread (instead of continuous metal coating or a solid metal wire) would decrease the cost of conductive thread and result in production of lighter conductive thread. Furthermore, the produced conductive thread would be thinner, with improved mechanical properties [64].…”

Electrical Characterization of Conductive Threads for Textile Electronics

“…This idea of creating conductive fibers that can create threads is already well researched. Silver has been used to coat nylon and cotton threads at varying densities in [16], as well as polyester and polyester/rubber compounds in [17]. In Reference [18], PEDOT: PSS-coated conductive fibers were fabricated and found to be about 10 times less conductive than Ag coated equivalents.…”