Designing of carbon nanotubes/cotton fabric composite for e-textiles: effect of carbon nanotubes-lenght on electroconductive properties

Nonfunctionalized carbon nanotubes featuring length over than 500 μm, were mixed with an amino-functionalized sol-gel precursor and a highly volatile solvent in order to obtain a well-dispersed solution. Finally, a thickener was added to the nanotubes dispersion thus obtaining a viscous paste, which was deposited on cotton fabrics through knife-over-roll technique thus achieving a surface coating with high electrical conductivity. The as-prepared conductive cotton fabrics were characterized by different chemical-physical techniques and showed a sheet resistance of about 9.5 • 102 Ω/sq. Developed conductive fabrics can find applications as conductive material or wearable sensors.