Step-by-step assembly of antimony tin oxide/polymer coatings on cotton fabrics for enhanced electrical conductivity and fire resistance properties

To prepare functional cotton fabric with good electrical conductive property, tin oxide antimony (ATO) and polymer was alternately assembled on the cotton fabric for fabricating functional coating by dipping-assisted layer-by-layer assembly technique. The microstructure of ATO/polymer coated fabric was characterized by scanning electron microscope and energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, the electrical conductivity and air permeability were measured by multimeter, four-point resistance tester and air permeability tester. The results showed that the addition of ATO imparted electrical conductive property to the ordinary cotton fabric, and the polyanionic waterborne polyurethane (WPU) was beneficial to the deposition of ATO and polycationic polyethyleneimine (PEI) and thus improving the conductive property of the fabric. With the increase of the number of assembly layers, the quality, thickness and electrical conductive property increased, but the air permeability decreased. When the number of assembly layers increased from 3 to 6 and 9, the resistivity of the fabric decreased from 41.8 Ω·m to 6.1 and 4.7 Ω·m. Meanwhile, the addition of ATO and PEI improved the fire resistance property of cotton fabric. The exploration of the conductive fabric provides a feasible strategy for multi-functional wearable textiles.