Tea-Carbon Dots-Reduced Graphene Oxide: An Efficient Conducting Coating Material for Fabrication of an E-Textile

The present study reports a facile and green method for reduction of graphene oxide using carbon dots (CDs) derived from Assam CTC (crush tear curl) Tea. The efficient reduction of graphene oxide by tea-CDs was monitored using UV-visible spectroscopy. The reduced graphene oxide (rGO) prepared by this method adsorbs some amount of tea-CDs on its surface and forms a very good dispersion in aqueous medium without the use of any other capping or stabilizing agents. Subsequently, the tea-CDs reduced graphene oxide (TCD-rGO) was used for fabrication of a cotton-based conducting fabric with anticipated applicability in different electronic gadgets where high flexibility of the conducting material is required. Coating of cotton with TCD-rGO improved the thermostability of the fabric. The initial degradation temperature for the TCD-rGO coated fabric was found to increase by 30 degrees C compared to that of the bare cotton fabric. The electrical property of the coated fabric was evaluated. TCD-rGO coated fabric possessed a sheet resistance of 229 +/- 20 Omega/sq and electrical conductivity 623 +/- 54 S/m, which was comparable to that of the other graphitic conducting textile materials reported so far. The ohmic behavior and the electrical stability of the material was also studied. This particular approach eliminates the use of any toxic chemicals and other high cost synthetic products for fabrication of conducting textiles. Finally, to test the practical viability of the material developed, a stripe from the fabricated conducting fabric was used in a circuit to light up a series of light-emitting diode bulbs.