Protective Coating for Electrically Conductive Yarns for the Implementation in Smart Textiles

Abstract

The Cluster of Excellence “Centre for Tactile Internet with Human-in-the-Loop (CeTI)” deals with developments and inventions concerning smart devices used in many fields, e.g. industry 4.0, medicine and skill learning. These kind of applications require smart devices, sensors, actors and conductive structures. Textile structures address these applications by meeting requirements such of being flexible, adaptable and wearable. Within this paper, the development of a protective coating for electrically conductive (EC) yarns is captured. These EC yarns are nowadays often used for smart textile applications. One challenge in their application is the integration into textile structures. Often, the handling and use of EC yarns lead on the one hand to damages on the surface of the yarn and on the other hand to reduced electromechanically characteristics. This paper aims to characterize these EC yarns in regard to develop a suitable protective coating based on polypropylene (PP). To achieve this development, an extensive characterization of the EC yarns as well as the protective coating itself is important. The surface free energy (SFE), the topographical and the chemical characteristics are necessary for developing a suitable protective coating. However, the yarns are characterized before and after implementation into the textile structure and furthermore after the coating respectively with the developed finish.