Atomic layer deposition on polymer fibers and fabrics for multifunctional and electronic textiles

Textile materials, including woven cotton, polymer knit fabrics, and synthetic nonwoven fiber mats, are being explored as low-cost, flexible, and light-weight platforms for wearable electronic sensing, communication, energy generation, and storage. The natural porosity and high surface area in textiles is also useful for new applications in environmental protection, chemical decontamination, pharmaceutical and chemical manufacturing, catalytic support, tissue regeneration, and others. These applications raise opportunities for new chemistries, chemical processes, biological coupling, and nanodevice systems that can readily combine with textile manufacturing to create new "multifunctional" fabrics. Atomic layer deposition (ALD) has a unique ability to form highly uniform and conformal thin films at low processing temperature on nonuniform high aspect ratio surfaces. Recent research shows how ALD can coat, modify, and otherwise improve polymer fibers and textiles by incorporating new materials for viable electronic and other multifunctional capabilities. This article provides a current overview of the understanding of ALD coating and modification of textiles, including current capabilities and outstanding problems, with the goal of providing a starting point for further research and advances in this field. After a brief introduction to textile materials and current textile treatment methods, the authors discuss unique properties of ALD-coated textiles, followed by a review of recent electronic and multifunctional textiles that use ALD coatings either as direct functional components or as critical nucleation layers for active materials integration. The article concludes with possible future directions for ALD on textiles, including the challenges in materials, manufacturing, and manufacturing integration that must be overcome for ALD to reach its full potential in electronic and other emerging multifunctional textile systems. (C) 2015 American Vacuum Society.