Electrically conducting fibres for e-textiles: An open playground for conjugated polymers and carbon nanomaterials

Publication date: April 2018 Source:Materials Science and Engineering: R: Reports, Volume 126 Author(s): Anja Lund, Natascha M. van der Velden, Nils-Krister Persson, Mahiar M. Hamedi, Christian Müller Conducting fibres and yarns promise to become an essential part of the next generation of wearable electronics that seamlessly integrate electronic function into one of the most versatile and most widely used form of materials: textiles. This review explores the many types of conducting fibres and yarns that can be realised with conjugated polymers and carbon materials, including carbon black, carbon nanotubes and graphene. We discuss how the interplay of materials properties and the chosen processing technique lead to fibres with a wide range of electrical and mechanical properties. Depending on the choice of conjugated polymer, carbon nanotube, graphene, polymer blend, or nanocomposite the electrical conductivity can vary from less than 10−3 to more than 103 S cm−1, accompanied by an increase in Young’s modulus from 10 s of MPa to 100 s of GPa. Further, we discuss how conducting fibres can be integrated into electronic textiles (e-textiles) through e.g. weaving and knitting. Then, we provide an overview of some of the envisaged functionalities, such as sensing, data processing and storage, as well as energy harvesting e.g. by using the piezoelectric, thermoelectric, triboelectric or photovoltaic effect. Finally, we critically discuss sustainability aspect...
Source: Materials Science and Engineering: R: Reports - Category: Materials Science Source Type: research