Preparation and physical properties of conductive silk fabrics used in wearable clothes and flexible supercapacitors

Abstract

The present work was designed to study several functions of Silk coated with polyaniline (PANI), graphene oxide (GO), and a composite of PANI@GO. The samples were characterized by XRD, SEM, FTIR, and thermal analysis. The investigated fabrics' resistivity, weight gain, tensile strength, elongation, and antimicrobial efficiency were monitored according to ASTM procedures. The FTIR spectra show the presence of the GO and PANI functional groups in the treated fabrics, and the SEM images show the formation of coating materials on the silk surface. The electrical conductivity of the coated silk with composite PANI@GO is 29 times higher than that of the uncoated one. The heat generation efficiency of the studied fabrics is in the order: of PANI@GO-SL > PANI-SL > GO-SL > SL. All coated silk samples have antimicrobial activity in the order: PANI@GO-SL > PANI-SL > GO-SL > SL. The results showed that the PANI@GO-SL sample exhibits the highest specific capacitance of all the coated silk electrodes with 450 Fg−1 at 10 mVs−1, which renders PANI@GO-SL fabric a promising electrode material for supercapacitors. The capacitance value of the symmetric capacitor of PANI@GO-SL/PVA/PANI@GO-SL using PVA-H3PO4 gel as an electrolyte is 71.2 Fg−1 at a current density of one Ag−1 and 87.4% retention at 5000 cycles. The Ragone plot of the symmetric cell showed the highest energy density is 25.31 Wh/kg and a power density of 8018 W/kg. The results suggest using coated silk (PANI@GO-SL) prepared via low-cost processing as smart textiles for different applications.