Roll‐to‐Roll Dyed Conducting Silk Yarns: A Versatile Material for E‐Textile Devices
Journal article, 2018

Textiles are a promising base material for flexible and wearable electronic applica-tions such as sensors, actuators, and energy harvesters. An essential component in such electronic textiles (e-textiles) is electrically conducting yarns. Here, a con-tinuous dyeing process is presented to convert an off-the-shelf silk sewing thread into a wash and wear resistant functional thread with a conductivity of about 70 S cm−1; a record high value for coated yarns. An aqueous ink based on the conducting polymer:polyelectrolyte complex poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) is modified, to produce more than 100 m of dyed conducting threads, which are subsequently converted into e-textiles by both hand weaving and machine embroidery. The yarns are resistant to abrasion and wear, and can be machine washed at least 15 times with retained electronic properties. The woven fabric is used to design a capacitive touch sensor which functions as an e-textile keyboard.

Author

Anja Lund

Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Applied Chemistry

Sozan Darabi

Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Applied Chemistry

Sandra Hultmark

Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Applied Chemistry

Jason Ryan

Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Applied Chemistry

Barbro Andersson

Göteborgs Hemslöjdsförening

Anna Ström

Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Applied Chemistry

Christian Müller

Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Applied Chemistry

Advanced Materials Technologies

2365709X (eISSN)

Vol. 3 12 1800251 -

Subject Categories

Textile, Rubber and Polymeric Materials

Materials Chemistry

Composite Science and Engineering

DOI

10.1002/admt.201800251

More information

Latest update

1/22/2021