Electrically Conductive Monofilaments for Smart Textiles

Abstract

The main objective of this work is to develop conductive yarns to be used as electrical wiring in e-textiles with the typical mechanical properties of a textile yarn. Present work deals with the study of conductive polymer composites filaments of PP (polypropylene) with CB (carbon black), carbon black of high conductivity (CBHC) and CF (carbon fibers) .The novelty of this work resides in creating oriented filaments using traditional fiber processing techniques together with a specially designed drafting machine. In the authors’ opinion, the composite conductivity could be improved with the orientation of the (nano)carbon-based fillers by melt drawing after extrusion in order to facilitate the flow channels creation.