Electrically high-conductive textiles

The development of textiles with high electrical conductivity, which may be further processed to flexible heating elements is described. Conductivity was obtained by establishing thin layers by impregnation of the textile with thiophene derivative monomer followed by oxidative polymerization. The characteristic flexibility of the textiles could be maintained. Especially the use of multifilament synthetic samples was found to be advantageous. As mechanical properties of treated materials are concerned one finds almost no change in tensile strength (<1%) with PETP and polyamide. With cotton a decrease in strength of about 20% (best value) was observed. The question of ageing will be studied more intensively in future. Layers obtained from poly(ethylene dioxythiophene) additionally offered protection against aggressive chemicals like concentrated sodium hydroxide. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.