Conductive Chitosan Nonwoven Fabrics by Electroless Plating with Excellent Laundering Durability for Wearable Electronics

Silver-plated chitosan fabrics with excellent conductivity and launderability were obtained via the electroless plating method. Due to the high content of amino and hydroxyl groups, chitosan can provide active sites for the formation of complexes with silver ions which can be further reduced to a silver layer on the surface of chitosan fibers. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) results showed that chitosan/Ag nanocomposite fabrics displayed a uniform and continuous layer of silver on the chitosan fiber surface. The hydrophilic surface of chitosan fabrics became hydrophobic due to the plated silver. Thermogravimetric analysis displayed that the initial decomposition temperature of silver-plated fabrics increased slightly. The treated fabrics exhibited a very low electrical resistance of 20.23 mΩ/sq. After 40 washing cycles, the electrical resistance was still below 1 Ω/sq. It is expected that such novel conductive fabrics have promising applications in the field of wearable electronics materials.