Characteristics of electrically conducting polymer-coated textiles

Intrinsically conducting polymer (ICP)/textile composites were prepared by coating polypyrrole (PTy) or poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiopene) (PEDOT) on the fabrics through chemical and electrochemical oxidation of pyrrole or EDOT We investigated the effects of the preparation conditions on the properties of the resulting composite such as ICP content, electrical conductivity, surface morphology, and electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness (EMI SE). The specific volume resistivity of the composite was as low as 0.3 Omega-cm, giving rise to about 36 dB of EMI SE over the wide range of frequency up to 1.5 GHz. We also prepared the elastic textile composites, exhibiting a monotonic increase of the electrical resistance with the elongation up to 50%. We, therefore, propose the elastic textile composite can be used as a strain sensor for large deformation.