Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-1-2020

Publication Title

Matter

Volume

2

Issue

4

First Page

882

Keywords

conductive fabrics, e-textiles, electroless metallization, gold-coated fabrics, knitted nylon/spandex fabric, light-emitting devices, MAP5: Improvement, stencil printing, stretchable ACEL devices, stretchable electronics, wearable electronics

Last Page

895

Abstract

Despite the development throughout human history of a wealth of textile materials and structures, the porous structures and non-planar surfaces of textiles are often viewed as problematic for the fabrication of wearable e-textiles and smart clothing. Here, we demonstrate a new textile-centric design paradigm in which we use the textile structure as an integral part of wearable device design. We coat the open framework structure of an ultrasheer knitted textile with a conformal gold film using solution-based metallization to form gold-coated ultrasheer electrodes that are highly conductive (3.6 ± 0.9 Ω/sq) and retain conductivity to 200% strain with R/R0 < 2. The ultrasheer electrodes produce wearable, highly stretchable light-emitting e-textiles that function to 200% strain. Stencil printing a wax resist provides patterned electrodes for patterned light emission; furthermore, incorporating soft-contact lamination produces light-emitting textiles that exhibit, for the first time, readily changeable patterns of illumination.

DOI

10.1016/j.matt.2020.01.017

ISSN

25902393

E-ISSN

25902385

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