PEDOT:PSS Wires Printed on Textile for Wearable Electronics

Herein, the fabrication of all-organic conductive wires is demonstrated by utilizing patterning techniques such as inkjet printing and sponge stencil to apply poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrenesulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) onto nonwoven polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fabric. The coating of the conducting polymer is only present on the surface of the substrate (penetration depth, similar to 200 mu m) to retain the functionality and wearability of the textile. The wires fabricated by different patterning techniques provide a wide range of resistance, i.e., tens of k Omega/square to less than 2 Omega/square that allows the resistance to be tailored to a specific application. The sheet resistance is measured to be as low as 1.6 Omega/square, and the breakdown current is as high as 0.37 A for a 1 mm wide line. The specific breakdown current exceeds the previously reported values of macroscopic carbon nanotube based materials. Simple circuits composed of the printed wires are demonstrated, and resistance of the circuit from the measurement agrees with the calculated value based on Kirchhoff's rules. Additionally, the printed PEDOT:PSS wires show less than 6.2% change in sheet resistance after three washing and drying cycles using detergent.