All inkjet-printed graphene-based conductive patterns for wearable e-textile applications

Karim, Nazmul; Afroj, Shaila; Malandraki, Andromachi; Butterworth, Sean; Beach, Christopher; Rigout, Muriel; Novoselov, Kostya S.; Casson, Alexander J.; Yeates, Stephen G.

Abstract

© 2017 The Royal Society of Chemistry. Inkjet printing of graphene inks is considered to be very promising for wearable e-textile applications as benefits of both inkjet printing and extra-ordinary electronic, optical and mechanical properties of graphene can be exploited. However, the common problem associated with inkjet printing of conductive inks on textiles is the difficulty to print a continuous conductive path on a rough and porous textile surface. Here we report inkjet printing of an organic nanoparticle based surface pre-treatment onto textiles to enable all inkjet-printed graphene e-textiles for the first time. The functionalized organic nanoparticles present a hydrophobic breathable coating on textiles. Subsequent inkjet printing of a continuous conductive electrical path onto the pre-treated coating reduced the sheet resistance of graphene-based printed e-textiles by three orders of magnitude from 1.09 × 106 Ω sq-1 to 2.14 × 103 Ω sq-1 compared with untreated textiles. We present several examples of how this finding opens up opportunities for real world applications of printed, low cost and environmentally friendly graphene wearable e-textiles.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 5, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Oct 6, 2017
• Publication Date: Oct 6, 2017
• Deposit Date: Dec 8, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 9, 2019
• Journal: Journal of Materials Chemistry C
• Print ISSN: 2050-7526
• Electronic ISSN: 2050-7526
• Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 5
• Issue: 44
• Pages: 11640-11648
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/c7tc03669h
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/4789592
• Additional Information: : This document is Similarity Check deposited; : Supplementary Information; : Nazmul Karim (ORCID); : Shaila Afroj (ORCID); : Andromachi Malandraki (ORCID); : Christopher Beach (ORCID); : Muriel Rigout (ORCID); : Kostya S. Novoselov (ORCID); : Alexander J. Casson (ORCID); : Stephen G. Yeates (ORCID); : The Royal Society of Chemistry has an exclusive publication licence for this journal; OPEN ACCESS: This article is freely available. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence (CC BY 3.0); : Single-blind; : Received 13 August 2017; Accepted 5 October 2017; Accepted Manuscript published 6 October 2017; Advance Article published 1 November 2017; Version of Record published 16 November 2017