Robust conductive polyester fabric with enhanced multi-layer silver deposition for textile electrodes

Conductive fabric combines many advantages of fabric including durability, flexibility, and comfort, and has broad prospects in the field of wearable electronics. A multilayer silver deposition fabric with ultrahigh washability is prepared by combining 3-mercaptopropytrimethoxysilane (MPTS) and N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) in the fabrication process. Silver particles were deposited on polyester fabric (PETF) by electroless plating with glucose as a reducing agent. MPTS is grafted on PETF by condensation reaction to ensure that the first layer of silver is firmly deposited on the fabric. NAC with sulfhydryl and carboxyl groups is used as the binder between the next silver layers. NAC treatment of silver-plated fabric can not only eliminate the loosely attached silver particles on the fabric, but also increase the adhesion between the silver layers by sulfhydryl and carboxyl groups. The electrical resistance of the two-layer silver plated fabric (Ag2/M-PETF) is as low as 0.016 Ω sq−1, which is only 2.06 Ω sq−1 after 500 washing cycles and 0.068 Ω sq−1 after 1000 friction cycles. Ag2/M-PETF also shows good hydrophobicity, mechanical properties and thermal stability.