Copper Conductive Ink-Based Pearl Biomimetic Structure for Personal Thermal Management Fabrics

Ink printing can be considered a desirable production method for mass manufacturing inexpensive electronic textiles. Copper nanowires (CuNWs) have attracted enormous attention due to preponderant electric conductivity, mechanical properties, and large abundance in recent years. Unfortunately, low dispersibility, poor binding, and incompatibility of CuNWs greatly limit their development in conductive inks. Herein, a green CuNW ink with high conductivity and durability was reported, which couples a tannic-polyethylenimine (TA-PEI) modified CuNW (TA-PEI@CuNW) heterostructure as "brick" with carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) acting as "mortar" inspired by the "brick–mortar" structure of pearls. The ink exhibits splendid adhesion strength on the textiles, attributed to abundant hydrogen bonding sites between CMC and TA-PEI@CuNWs. The obtained printed fabric also shows superb conductivity (sheet resistance Ra = 3.33 Ω·sq–1) and bending resistance (withstanding 1500 cycles). Furthermore, the printed fabric presented exceptional application potential in Joule heating (112.8 °C at 1.5 V voltage) and electromagnetic shielding (shielding efficiency SET of 50.488 dB). We think that the CuNW ink may provide insight into the development of personal thermal management fabrics.