Continuous Production of Conductive Fiber by Depressing Plateau-Rayleigh Instability for Wearable Smart Textile

The highly conducting polymer fiber with robust electrical conductivity and strain durability is the fundamental component of electronic textiles (E-textiles). Through alternately coating of 1D nanosize electric conductive materials and carbon black/polyurethane composite on nylon-6 fiber, we realized the continuous production of conducting fiber. The single wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and Ag nanowires (AgNWs) were used as the conducting elements. By using designed soft confined nozzles, the Plateau-Rayleigh instability (PRI) of coated fluid layer were depressed effectively. The 50μm thick nylon-6 fiber coated with 2 μm ~ 4 μm thick shell exhibits conductivity of 30 Ω/cm ~ 80 Ω/cm and maintains 80% conductivity after 10
⁵
repeat folding test. The fiber with lamella shell shows great strain durability Within 50% strain and fully recovered conductivity within 30% repeated strain. The electrothermal effect of the yarns was measured and the low frequency electrocardiogram (ECG) signal and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) signal transmission using yarns was demonstrated.