Eco-Friendly, Low-Cost, and Flexible Cotton Fabric for Capacitive Touchscreen Devices Based on Graphite

Abstract

Cotton fabrics with high electrical conductivity were prepared using graphite dispersed in ethanol as the conductive material. The graphite particles were drop-cast onto the cotton fabrics at room temperature. The samples were characterized by SEM, EDX, XPS, and XRD. In addition, the electrical properties of the cotton samples were investigated using a four-probe technique. The concentration of the dispersed graphite was increased to a saturation concentration of 74.48 wt% to investigate the relation between the sheet resistance of the conductive cotton and the graphite concentration. With increasing graphite concentration, the sheet resistance decreased and reached the minimum value of 7.97 Ω/□ at a saturation concentration of 74.48 wt%. Samples with low, medium, and high graphite concentration showed semiconducting metallic behavior at a transition temperature of 90 °C. Based on their individual electrical properties, a smart glove was fabricated for touchscreen devices such as cell phones and self-service devices by dropping a small amount of dispersed graphite into one of the fingertips of the glove. The smart glove showed high efficiency and durability up to 10 wash cycles.