Preparation of conductive cotton fabrics by padding reduction of graphene oxide

Graphene oxide (GO) was prepared by ultrasonic oxidation stripping method. A highly efficient and simple method for the preparation of reduced graphene oxide (RGO) conductive cotton fabrics was developed, in which, the cotton fabrics was immersed by GO solution, then, the GO padded cotton fabrics was dried, finally the reduced graphene oxide (RGO) coated conductive cotton fabrics was obtained by chemical reduction. The effects of GO mass concentration, GO solution pH value, reduction condition, padding-reduction times on the surface resistance of cotton fabrics were investigated. The treated cotton fabrics were characterized by SEM and Raman spectra. The results showed that the optimal conditions were obtained as follows: GO mass fraction of 2.5 g/L, pH value of GO solution of 6, sodium hydrosulfite mass fraction of 5.0 g/L, reduced temperature 90 ℃ and reaction time 30 min. Under these conditions, the surface resistance of the treated cotton fabrics was decreased to 2220 Ω, 0.22 kΩ and 0.130 kΩ after 4 and 8 times of padding-reduction process, respectively. SEM results revealed that RGO could form film on the surface of cotton fiber and cover the fiber, and with the increase of the number of padding reduction, the deposition of RGO on the surface of cotton fabrics increased gradually. Raman spectra results showed that GO was deposited on the surface of cotton fabrics and fully reduced to RGO. Moreover, the conductive durability of the treated fabric was excellent. © 2020, Editorial Office of FINE CHEMICALS. All right reserved.