Applications of Conducting Polymers in Electronic Textiles

As the textile industry increasingly engages with technical applications, interest in electronic textiles is growing. This paper reviews the research and development (R&D), and commercialization efforts in conducting polymers and electronic textile materials by using conducting polymers. A brief historical overview of conducting polymer development starts this paper. A review then documents the molecular orbitals and molecular structures of polymers, and lists some commonly used conducting polymer chemical structures, their band gap energies, corresponding dopants, and conductivity values. Then, there is a detailed discussion of the conducting mechanisms, with special attention paid to the energy band gap concept; the formation of polaron, soliton, and bipolaron. With regards to applications, the review presents conducting polymer applications, including antistatic packaging, microelectronics, rechargeable batteries, photovoltaic technology, LEDs, electrochromic devices, actuators, membranes, corrosion protection and biomedical applications, as well as applications of electric and electronic textiles (e-textiles) which include sensors, heaters, electromagnetic interference shielding, etc. Future trends in electrochromic and solar textiles conclude this paper.