Metal-nanowire coated threads for conductive textiles

The emerging area of e-textiles requires electrically conductive threads. We demonstrate that nylon and cotton threads can be made conductive by coating their surfaces with random networks of solution-synthesized silver nanowires. A resistance of 0.8 Ω/cm was achieved and can be engineered by varying the density of the nanowire coating. Because the nanowires are 35 nm in diameter, and the mesh structure does not cover the entire surface like a thin-film, less metal is used compared to conventional silver-coated conductive threads. The nanowire coating is less than 5% of the weight of the typical silver thin-film coatings used in commercial conductive thread. The nanowire-coated thread is also more mechanically flexible, with its resistance increasing only 16% after 200 bending cycles while the resistance of the commercial conductive thread increased by more than 300%.