Fabrication of rGO/Cu NPs on knitted fabrics for action sensing and electrothermal applications

The inevitable oxidation of metal layer deposited on substrates is a nonnegligible issue when developing functional textiles. In this study, were on the surface of to form a metallic Cu layer, and graphene (GO) sheets were spray-coated onto an in-situ grown copper nanoparticle (Cu NP) layer on a nylon knitted fabric (NKF) to prevent the oxidation of copper. In addition, a synergistic effect on further enhancing the electrical conduction capacity was realized by the hydrothermal reduction of the GO sheets using L-ascorbic acid (L-AA). The morphology, chemical composition and structure of the NKFs were characterized by SEM, FTIR, XRD and XPS, respectively. The novel rGO/Cu@NKF architecture enabled the fabric prospects of promising action sensing capability as reflected by the repeated ΔR/R0 peaks recorded in action sensing during real running exercises. The mechanism of sensing and the responsiveness together with the stability of the sensors were investigated. The rGO/Cu@NKF also showed efficient electrothermal performance as evidenced by a maximum surface temperature of 95.0°C after 120 s into the charging process at 15 V. These results demonstrated the potential of the rGO/Cu@NKF in smart textiles with action sensing and heating functions.