Copper Ions Generation through Electroplating Techniques

In this work, copper ions generated through electroplating techniques were deposited on polyester fabrics in single bath and its properties were studied. Flexible electronics or wearable electronics are used interchangeably. These flexible electronics are developed with the integration of electronics into textiles to produce conductive textiles. There may be greater benefits to thin metal particle deposition on textiles compared to the traditional approach of adding metal to textiles. The electroplating technique is used to synthesize copper nanoparticles in a single bath and deposit them on polyester fabric. The copper nanoparticles were generated in the treatment bath by increasing the time from 30 to 150 minutes. The effect of varying the time for the generation of copper ions, on the deposition percentage was studied. Further, copper nanoparticle deposited fabric is studied for its property like morphological structure and electrical conductivity. With an increase in treatment time, decrease in the electrical resistance of the fabric was observed from 300K/cm for untreated polyester to 118K/cm for copper ion deposited fabric with a treatment time of 150 minutes. Further, the study of weight gain percentage and surface morphology also reveals that the nanoparticle deposition does not result in a significant increase of the fabric. This method proves to be a promising method for development of conductive textiles.