Textile/Polypyrrole Composites for Sensory Applications

Abstract

Electrically conductive woven, knitted, and nonwoven composite fabrics are prepared by in situ chemical polymerization of pyrrole using suitable oxidant and dopant. These composite fabrics show surface resistivity in the range ~1 to 2 kΩ. These composite fabric can alter their resistivity with various stimuli such as mechanical strain, pH, and humidity. So, in the present study, their response to pH, humidity, and mechanical strain is investigated. For all fabrics, similar behaviour has been observed regarding pH versus resistivity. The resistance of the composite fabric increases with the increase of alkalinity of pH. However, as bending strain increases, resistance steeply decreases for cotton fabrics, steeply increases for polyester fabrics, and initially decreases and then increases for wool fabrics. Regarding humidity sensitivity, sigmoid curves have been obtained for all kinds of fabrics.