New conductive, cotton-based fiber developed for smart textiles

A single strand of newly developed fiber has the flexibility of cotton and the electric conductivity of the polymer, polyaniline. The new material has shown good potential for wearable e-textiles. The researchers tested the fibers with a system that powered an LED light and another that sensed ammonia gas. While intrinsically conductive, polyaniline is brittle and by itself, cannot be made into a fiber for textiles. To solve this, the researchers dissolved cotton cellulose from recycled t-shirts into a solution and the conductive polymer into another separate solution.