Highly conductive polyester fabrics fabricated by graphene oxide printing and hot-pressing

In this work, graphene oxide (GO) is printed on the surface of polyester fabric, and conductive polyester fabrics are prepared through the hot-pressing reduction method. The influence of GO concentration, hot-pressing temperature and hot-pressing time on the electrical conductivity of the fabrics is investigated. The electrical conductivity, whiteness/yellowness, reflectivity, strength, washability and friction resistance of the printed fabrics are tested. The conductive fabrics are characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared attenuated total reflection spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The results demonstrate that the surface electrical resistance of the printed fabric decreases with increasing GO concentration. Besides, the I _D/I _G ratio in the Raman spectrum, the reduction of GO and the electrical conductivity all increase with increasing temperature or time of hot-pressing. Through SEM, the presence of reduced GO sheets on the surface of the printed fabric can be observed. However, the fabric stiffness is found to increase when the hot-pressing temperature is higher than 220°C and/or the hot-pressing time is longer than 120 s. After printing with 60 g/l GO and hot-pressing at 220°C for 120 s, the surface electric resistance of the polyester is decreased to 1347.5 Ω/cm. Furthermore, the surface electric resistance of the polyester fabric remains 2876.3 Ω/cm after 30 washing cycles.