Transparent Polymeric-Zinc Oxide Coatings for Highly Conductive Cotton

This proof-of-concept research effort will lay the foundation for integrating conductive natural fibers into garments for point-of-failure sensing.  A current military need for the proposed technology is in the arena of chemical and biological (CB) agent protective garments where a sensor that can indicate whether these garments have been compromised could not only increase the service life of the garment, but could also guard the warfighter from the current empirical calculations used to determine CB garment service life.  iFyber LLC, the lead company for this project, proposes to work toward extending the lifetime of CB protective garments by embedding conductive cotton fiber sensors.  We will work to expand on our ability to conformally deposit various metal onto cellulose fibers with very high surface coverage using a layer-by-layer (LBL) self-assembly process.  This proposed effort aims to develop a nanostructured coating  that will exploit this LBL-based processes to control the conductivity of fabric textiles used by the US Department of Defense. BENEFIT: The proposed research has significant commercial impact given the potential applications of conductive textiles within both the military and public markets.  In addition to standard issue CB protective garments, conductive fabric-based textiles could be implemented into packaging materials as integrated anti-tampering devices or as selective tags for anti-counterfeit applications.  In the public sector, fabric-based point-of-failure sensors would also be important for workers requiring protective clothing that are in contact with hazardous materials in the chemical and agricultural industries, emergency personnel, and medical personnel.