Knittable and Washable Multifunctional MXene‐Coated Cellulose Yarns

Conductivity that won’t come out in the wash

30 April 2020

Highly conductive yarns that can withstand the onslaught of industrial knitting and domestic washing have been made.

Wearable electronics need electrically conducting yarns that can transmit and store electrical energy and act as sensors. Such yarns are commonly produced by coating their fibres with a conductive material. But it can be difficult to marry this approach with industrial manufacturing processes. Furthermore, the properties of the yarns often degrade with washing.

Now, a team that included two researchers from Deakin University in Australia has produced conductive cellulose yarns that are both knittable and washable

They achieved this by coating cellulose yarns with a highly conductive, two-dimensional transition-metal carbide known as an MXene. The resulting conductive yarns are robust enough to withstand textile manufacturing processes. Furthermore, they showed excellent retention of MXene and little increase in resistance even after being washed 45 times.

Supported content

References

1. Advanced Functional Materials 29, 1905015 (2019). doi: 10.1002/adfm.201905015