Abstract:

Objective Through preparation of conductive cotton fabrics with washable properties and application of two-dimensional titanium carbide to cotton fabrics, this research aims to obtain conductive cotton fabrics with a new method.
Method By cationic modification of cotton fabric, two-dimensional nanomaterial Ti₃C₂T_x was adsorbed on the surface of cationic cotton fabric to obtain new conductive cotton fabrics. The morphologies and elements of cotton knitted products before and after cationic modification and Ti₃C₂T_x loading were analyzed by X-ray diffractometer, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The surface resistance of conductive cotton fabric was tested by using RTS-9 four probes, and the cationic modification technology and adsorption conditions of Ti₃C₂T_x were optimized, so as to obtain the optimal scheme.
Results Ti₃AlC₂ is a three-dimensional solid, and the product after etching by hydrofluoric acid becomes a two-dimensional nanomaterial. This conclusion has been confirmed in the electron microscopy (Fig. 1), and it is also confirmed that the etched material contains F, O and other groups (Fig. 2), making the two-dimensional material negatively charged. Cationic modifier is a polymer nitrogen-containing compound. After cationic modification, the surface of cotton knitted fabric is grafted with positive amino group (Fig. 3). After ultrasonic treatment with Ti₃C₂T_x, there are Ti, F, O and other groups on the surface of the fabric, which proves that Ti₃C₂T_x is successfully loaded on the surface of the fabric (Fig. 4). Following the experimental design (Tab. 1), the optimal processing conditions are that the cationic modifier is 10% o.w.f(Fig. 6), the concentration of sodium hydroxide is 10 g/L (Fig. 5), the modification time is 30 min, and the ultrasonic time of Ti₃C₂T_x is 60 min (Fig. 8). Under optimized conditions, the surface resistance of cationic modified cotton knitted material loaded with Ti₃C₂T_x can be as low as 84.5 Ω/□. After 20 times of washing, the surface resistance of conductive cotton knitted material increases from 84.5 Ω/□ to 95.6 Ω/□, still below 100 Ω/□ (Fig. 9).
Conclusion This paper provides a method for fabric-loaded Ti₃C₂T_x nanosheets for fabric-based flexibility with excellent preparative properties. After cationic modification of cotton fabric, conductive nanosheets are applied to the fabric by adsorption. The composite cotton fabric has good electrical conductivity. The conductive fabric obtained by this method is simple and has excellent electrical conductivity textiles offer new ideas, and Ti₃C₂T_x/cation-modified cotton knitted fabrics can still maintain certain conductivity after washing for many times, but there are still many shortcomings and unsolved problems. For example, the preparation of Ti₃C₂T_x/cation modified cotton knitted fabric has good water resistance, but composites conductivity needs to be improved. Subsequent experiments can further explore the use of other cationic modifiers for comparison, or use adhesives to attach nanosheets to fabrics to observe whether the conductivity of composite materials is improved, and the application of nanomaterials in fabrics can be expanded by trying other fabrics.

Key words: Ti₃C₂T_x, cationic modification, conductive fabric, washable property, functional fabric