Rapid Copper Metallization of Textile Materials: a Controlled Two-Step Route to Achieve User-Defined Patterns under Ambient Conditions

Shuang Yuan Zhang, Guijian Guan, Shan Jiang, Hongchen Guo, Jing Xia, Michelle D. Regulacio, Mingda Wu, Kwok Wei Shah, Zhili Dong, Jie Zhang, Ming Yong Han*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Throughout history earth-abundant copper has been incorporated into textiles and it still caters to various needs in modern society. In this paper, we present a two-step copper metallization strategy to realize sequentially nondiffusive copper(II) patterning and rapid copper deposition on various textile materials, including cotton, polyester, nylon, and their mixtures. A new, cost-effective formulation is designed to minimize the copper pattern migration on textiles and to achieve user-defined copper patterns. The metallized copper is found to be very adhesive and stable against washing and oxidation. Furthermore, the copper-metallized textile exhibits excellent electrical conductivity that is 3 times better than that of stainless steel and also inhibits the growth of bacteria effectively. This new copper metallization approach holds great promise as a commercially viable method to metallize an insulating textile, opening up research avenues for wearable electronics and functional garments.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)21545-21551
Number of pages7
JournalACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
Volume7
Issue number38
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 30 2015
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 American Chemical Society.

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

  • General Materials Science

Keywords

  • autocatalytic plating
  • chemical plating
  • electroless copper plating
  • textile metallization
  • wearable electronics

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