Fabrication of dual-side metal patterns onto textile substrates for wearable electronics by combining wax-dot printing with electroless plating. Issue 29 (13th July 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zhao, H.; Hou, L.; Wu, J. X.; Lu, Y. X.
• Is Part Of: Journal of materials chemistry. Volume 4:Issue 29(2016)
• Page Start: 7156
• Page End: 7164
• Publication Date: 2016-07-13
• Subjects: Materials -- Periodicals; Chemistry, Analytic -- Periodicals; Optical materials -- Research -- Periodicals; Electronics -- Materials -- Research -- Periodicals; 543.0284
• DOI: 10.1039/c6tc01979j
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2050-7526

Abstract

Abstract : Dual-side Cu patterns with well-defined boundaries were plated onto fabric by combining wax-dot printing with electroless copper plating. Abstract : Textile wearable electronics offer the consolidated advantages of both electronics and textile characteristics. Wearable electronic systems typically require conductive tracks as a platform to integrate electronic components. Herein we developed a site-selective electroless plating process to construct dual-side Cu patterns onto textile substrates. The proposed craft was mainly comprised of four procedures, namely, 3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane (APTMS)-modification, wax-pattern printing, selective Au-seeding and Cu-pattern deposition. Specifically, waxes were transferred from commercial wax impregnated papers to APTMS modified fabrics with the aid of a conventional stylus printer. Intensive waxed dots then composed a wax pattern which corresponded to the input image designed on the computer. The wax pattern acted as a hydrophobic mask on the fabric surface and hindered the covered areas from being activated by subsequent Au catalysts. The non-covered areas, in contrast, were APTMS naked surfaces which normally adsorbed Au nanoparticles and had Cu tracks grown. The minimum width of the Cu track was 400 μm with 3.57% deviation and the typical resistivity was 7.52 μΩ cm, which was about 4.6 times that of the bulk metal Cu (at room temperature). The reliabilities of textile-based conductive Cu patterns were confirmed by air-exposure, ultrasonic washing and Scotch®-tape tests. In addition, the universality and versatility of the proposed method were validated by fabricating different metal patterns on various types of flexible substrates.