Conductive Chitosan Nonwoven Fabrics by Electroless Plating with Excellent Laundering Durability for Wearable Electronics

ABSTRACT

Silver-plated chitosan fabrics with excellent conductivity and launderability were obtained via the electroless plating method. Due to the high content of amino and hydroxyl groups, chitosan can provide active sites for the formation of complexes with silver ions which can be further reduced to a silver layer on the surface of chitosan fibers. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) results showed that chitosan/Ag nanocomposite fabrics displayed a uniform and continuous layer of silver on the chitosan fiber surface. The hydrophilic surface of chitosan fabrics became hydrophobic due to the plated silver. Thermogravimetric analysis displayed that the initial decomposition temperature of silver-plated fabrics increased slightly. The treated fabrics exhibited a very low electrical resistance of 20.23 mΩ/sq. After 40 washing cycles, the electrical resistance was still below 1 Ω/sq. It is expected that such novel conductive fabrics have promising applications in the field of wearable electronics materials.

摘要

采用化学镀的方法制备了导电性和耐洗性优异的壳聚糖镀银织物. 由于氨基和羟基的含量较高, 壳聚糖可以为银离子配合物的形成提供活性中心, 银离子可以进一步还原为壳聚糖纤维表面的银层. 扫描电子显微镜 (SEM) 结果表明, 壳聚糖/银纳米复合织物在壳聚糖纤维表面显示出均匀, 连续的银层. 由于镀银, 壳聚糖织物的亲水表面变得疏水. 热重分析表明, 镀银织物的初始分解温度略有升高. 经过处理的织物的电阻非常低, 为20.23mΩ/sq. 经过40次洗涤循环后, 电阻仍低于1Ω/sq. 预计这种新型导电织物在可穿戴电子材料领域具有广阔的应用前景.

KEYWORDS:

• Chitosan fabrics
• conductive
• silver nanoparticles
• launderability

关键词:

• 壳聚糖织物
• 导电
• 银纳米颗粒
• 耐洗性

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The corresponding author would like to thank the financial support by Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, China (2018A0303130100) and the Opening Foundation of State Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials and Electronic Components (FHR-JS-201909006).