Conductive and antibacterial cellulose nanofibers decorated with copper nanoparticles for potential application in wearable devices

One of the contributions of nanotechnology to our daily life is the preparation of a large variety of polymer-based nanofibers, which could be the basis of future wearable devices. Wearable electronics are a great part of smart textiles research. Herein, we have reported an easy method to fabricate electrically conductive cellulose nanofibers (CNFs). To fabricate CNFs, we first prepared cellulose acetate (CA) nanofibers by using the electrospinning technique and later, the deacetylation process was done to obtain the CNFs. The electroless deposition (ELD) technique was then used to create the conductive nanofibers. Copper (Cu) was used to coat the CNFs because of their high conductivity and low cost. The ELD process parameters including time, temperature, volume, and pH were optimized to obtain a nanofiber with higher conductivity. The optimized condition was temperature: 40 degrees C, time: 10 min, volume: 600 ml, and pH: 13 to obtain a nanofiber web with 983.5 S/cm conductivity. Cu-coated CNFs were characterized by scanning electron microscope, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, water contact angle, antibacterial activity, tensile, and electrical conductivity. The bending cycle test was performed to quantitatively demonstrate the durability and flexibility of the Cu-coated nanofibers. Cu-coated CNFs exhibited great performance to be used as a conductive layer with antibacterial activity.

Automated summary

This study presents a simple method to fabricate electrically conductive cellulose nanofibers by utilizing electrospinning and electroless deposition techniques. Through optimizing the processing parameters, nanofibers with enhanced conductivity were obtained.