Electroless plating of premetalized polyamide fibers for stretchable conductive devices

P Vishakha T Weerasinghe; Ruchira N Wijesena; Nadeeka D Tissera; Gayan Priyadarshana; Nandula D Wanasekara; D G Kanchana Dissanayake; K M Nalin de Silva

doi:10.1039/d3ra01566a

Electroless plating of premetalized polyamide fibers for stretchable conductive devices

RSC Adv. 2023 Jun 20;13(27):18605-18613. doi: 10.1039/d3ra01566a. eCollection 2023 Jun 15.

Authors

P Vishakha T Weerasinghe¹, Ruchira N Wijesena², Nadeeka D Tissera², Gayan Priyadarshana³, Nandula D Wanasekara¹, D G Kanchana Dissanayake¹, K M Nalin de Silva⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Textile and Clothing Textile and Clothing Technology, University of Moratuwa Moratuwa Sri Lanka.
² Division of Textile and Clothing Technology, Institute of Technology, University of Moratuwa Diyagama Homagama Sri Lanka ruchiraw@itum.mrt.ac.lk.
³ Department of Engineering Technology, Faculty of Technology, University of Sri Jayewardenepura Gangodawila Nugegoda Sri Lanka.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, University of Colombo Colombo 03 Sri Lanka kmnd@chem.cmb.ac.lk.

Abstract

A new approach was used to produce electrically conductive polyamide yarns, employing an electroless plating technique, which involved stabilizing silver nanoparticles on the surface of the yarn using Sn²⁺. First, the [Ag(NH₃)²]⁺ complex was reduced using Sn²⁺ to produce silver nanoparticle seed layers on the fiber surface, followed by a formaldehyde reduction. The nucleation and growth of silver nanoparticles on the fiber surface were observed through SEM images, demonstrating varying degrees of silver deposition depending on the silver concentration. This deposition variation was confirmed through XRD patterns, TGA data and UV-vis spectra. Additionally, XPS characterization showed the evolution of the chemical state of silver and tin during the silver reduction process. Electrical resistance revealed that the resistance per unit length of the yarn ranged from 3 ± 0.3 Ω cm^-1 to 70 ± 6 Ω cm^-1, depending on the silver concentration. The resulting silver-plated yarn was incorporated into a stretchable device, demonstrating stable resistance over multiple cycles. This method of fabricating conductive yarn has the potential to open up new possibilities in the design and manufacture of stretchable conductive devices for flexible electronics.