Development of a Screen-Printable Carbon Paste to Achieve Washable Conductive Textiles
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Smart Electronic Materials and Systems Research Group, School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK
2
Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton, Winchester SO23 8DL, UK
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: Philippe Boisse
Textiles 2021, 1(3), 419-432; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/textiles1030022
Received: 12 August 2021
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Revised: 17 September 2021
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Accepted: 20 September 2021
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Published: 5 October 2021
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fibrous Materials (Textiles) for Functional Applications)
Conductive tracks are key constituents of wearable electronics and e-textiles, as they form the interconnective links between wearable electrical devices/systems. They are made by coating or printing conductive patterns or tracks on textiles or by weaving, knitting, or embroidering conductive yarns into textiles. Screen printing is a mature and cost-effective fabrication method that is used in the textile industry. It allows a high degree of geometric freedom for the design of conductive patterns or tracks. Current screen-printed conductive textiles have the limitations of low durability when washed or when placed under bending, and they typically require encapsulation layers to protect the printed conductor. This paper presents a printable paste formulation and fabrication process based on screen printing for achieving a flexible and durable conductive polyester-cotton textile using an inexpensive carbon as the conductor. The process does not require an interface, the smoothing of the textile, or an encapsulation layer to protect the conductor on the textile. A resistivity of 4 × 10−2 Ω·m was achieved. The textile remains conductive after 20 standard washes, resulting in the conductor’s resistance increasing by 140%. The conductive textile demonstrated less than ±10% resistance variation after bending for 2000 cycles.
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Keywords:
conductive textile; carbon black; screen printing
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MDPI and ACS Style
Yong, S.; Liu, M.; Komolafe, A.; Tudor, J.; Yang, K. Development of a Screen-Printable Carbon Paste to Achieve Washable Conductive Textiles. Textiles 2021, 1, 419-432. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/textiles1030022
AMA Style
Yong S, Liu M, Komolafe A, Tudor J, Yang K. Development of a Screen-Printable Carbon Paste to Achieve Washable Conductive Textiles. Textiles. 2021; 1(3):419-432. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/textiles1030022
Chicago/Turabian StyleYong, Sheng, Meijing Liu, Abiodun Komolafe, John Tudor, and Kai Yang. 2021. "Development of a Screen-Printable Carbon Paste to Achieve Washable Conductive Textiles" Textiles 1, no. 3: 419-432. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/textiles1030022
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