Journal of Materials Chemistry C
ARTICLE
This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 20xx J. Name ., 2013, 00 , 1-3 | 1
Please do not adjust margins
Please do not adjust margins
Received 00th January 20xx,
Accepted 00th January 20xx
DOI: 10.1039/x0xx00000x
www.rsc.org/
Glycerol/PEDOT:PSS coated woven fabric as flexible heating
element on textiles
Maria R. Moraes,
a
Alexandra C. Alves,
b
Fatih Toptan,
b,c
Marcos S. Martins,
b
Eliana M. F. Vieira,
b
Antonio J. Paleo,
a
, Antonio P. Souto,
a
Washington L. F. dos Santos,
d
Maria F. Esteves
a
and Andrea
Zille
a*
A polyamide 6,6 (PA66) fabric pre-treated with a double barrier dielectric (DBD) atmospheric plasma in air was coated with
1 and 5 layers of intrinsically conducting glycerol-doped PEDOT:PSS polymer (PEDOT:PSS+GLY) with the final objective of
develop a cost-competitive and temperature controllable flexible-heating element to be used in clothing encapsulated
between an outer and an inner separator layer in order to provide heat-reflecting property and uniform temperature
distribution, respectively. FTIR, DSC, TGA, SEM, EDS, XRD and DMA analysis show significant changes in morphology,
chemistry, enthalpy, crystallinity and glass transition temperature confirming that PEDOT:PSS and glycerol are not only
spread over the PA66 yarn surfaces but are dispersed in the bulk facilitating relaxation and increasing structure and chain
flexibility. Electrochemical and electrical resistivity (ρ) measurements confirm that the plasma treated PA66 coated with 5
layers of PEDOT:PSS+GLY presents the highest stability, resistance, capacitive behaviour and the best ability on storing the
electrical energy. This configuration needs only 7.5 V to induce a temperature change up to 38 °C at a current density of
0.3 A g-1. The desired temperature is easily adjustable in function of the applied voltage and by the number of coated
layers of PEDOT:PSS+GLY. Despite the need to improve the uniformity of the coating thickness on the fabric for uniform
heat generation, the observed results are quite impressive since can be compared to the temperature obtained in carbon
nanotube composites using similar voltages. This cost-competitive, safe, high flexible and stable thermoelectric fabric
ensure its use in large area textiles as heating element in a wide range of applications such as garments, carpets, blankets
and automotive seats.
Electronic Supplementary Information (ESI)