Glycerol/PEDOT:PSS coated woven fabric as flexible heating element on textiles

摘要

A polyamide 6,6 (PA66) fabric pre-treated with a double barrier dielectric (DBD) atmospheric plasma inair was coated with 1 and 5 layers of an intrinsically conducting glycerol-doped PEDOT:PSS polymer(PEDOT:PSS + GLY) with the final objective of developing a cost-competitive and temperaturecontrollable flexible-heating element to be used in clothing encapsulated between an outer and aninner separator layer in order to provide heat-reflecting properties and uniform temperature distribution,respectively. FTIR, DSC, TGA, SEM, EDS, XRD and DMA analyses show significant changes inmorphology, chemistry, enthalpy, crystallinity and glass transition temperature confirming thatPEDOT:PSS and glycerol are not only spread over the PA66 yarn surfaces but are dispersed in the bulkfacilitating relaxation and increasing structure and chain flexibility. Electrochemical and electricalresistivity (r) measurements confirm that the plasma treated PA66 coated with 5 layers of PEDOT:PSS +GLY presents the highest stability, resistance and capacitive behaviour, and the best capability of storingelectrical energy. This configuration needs only 7.5 V to induce a temperature change up to 38 1C at acurrent density of 0.3 A g1. The desired temperature is easily adjustable as a function of the appliedvoltage and by the number of coated layers of PEDOT:PSS + GLY. Despite the need to improve theuniformity of the coating thickness on the fabric for uniform heat generation, the observed results arequite impressive since they can be compared to the temperature obtained in carbon nanotubecomposites using similar voltages. This cost-competitive, safe, highly flexible and stable thermoelectricfabric has potential for use in large area textiles as a heating element in a wide range of applicationssuch as garments, carpets, blankets and automotive seats.