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Highly conductive nylon 6 nanofiber webs, incorporating poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), were prepared for textile-based signal transmission lines. To improve the electrical performance of the textiles, they were optimized by the number of coating cycles and the solvent treatment step. The nanofiber web coated four times with PEDOT:PSS showed a six-times reduction in sheet resistance compared to that of once. In addition, the sample treated with both adding and dipping of DMSO showed a significant decrease of 83 times in sheet resistance compared to the sample without treatment of DMSO. Using samples with excellent electrical conductivity, the waveforms of the signal in the time domain were analyzed and shown to have an amplitude and phase almost identical to that of the conventional copper wire. As a result of the S21 characteristic curve, selected textiles were available up to the 15 MHz frequency bandwidth. In the FE-SEM image, it was observed that the surface of the coated sample was generally covered with PEDOT:PSS, which was distinguished from the untreated sample. These results demonstrate that the nanofiber web treated with the optimized conditions of PEDOT:PSS and DMSO can be applied as promising textile-based signal transmission lines for smart clothing.

Highly conductive nylon 6 nanofiber web was fabricated with poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) for electronic textiles. To improve electrical conductivity, repeated coating with PEDOT:PSS and multi-step treatment of DMSO was performed. The effects of these treatments on electrical conductivity, surface properties, and chemical structures were investigated. For repetitive coating cycles, pristine PEDOT:PSS dispersion was dropped onto a nylon 6 nanofiber web for between one and four times of coating. For DMSO multi-step treatment, in the one-step treatment, the nanofiber web was repeatedly treated using PEDOT:PSS doped with DMSO. In the two-step treatment, the nanofiber web was repeatedly treated with doped PEDOT:PSS at first and, then, it was immersed in a DMSO bath. As a result, the sheet resistance decreased dramatically as the number of coating cycles increased. When the two-step treatment was applied, the sheet resistance was much lower compared to that of the one-step treatment, and thereby sample PD4-D with the lowest resistance showed 6.56 Ω/sq. As a result, the surface of the nanofiber web was covered with more PEDOT:PSS as the coating cycle was repeated. The PEDOT particles became large and long shapes after the two-step treatment of DMSO. This inferred that the contact area among conducting PEDOT particles increased because insulating PSS was removed by DMSO. In addition, the presence of PEDOT:PSS and nylon 6 was confirmed. This study proved that the simultaneous treatments of repeated coating with PEDOT:PSS and multi-step treatment of DMSO can improve electrical conductivity, and it developed the highly conductive PEDOT:PSS/nylon 6 nanofiber web.

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