Investigating the Impact of Washing Cycles on Silver-Plated Textile Electrodes: A Complete Study

Abstract

Although market prediction for smart textiles in the coming years is high, their washability will be among the main criteria for their mass adoption. Hence, the need to understand precisely how the washing process can damage them. Therefore, the best care instructions can be determined and serve as guidelines for smart textile manufacturers to control the quality of their smart garments as well as their customers to wash them cautiously. In this study, only the sensing part, silver-plated-nylon electrode sensors, is taken into account. To determine the chemical and the mechanical impacts of the machine-washing process separately and simultaneously, textile electrodes were put in different washing conditions: with and without bleaching agents, with and without mechanical constraints, etc. Then spectrophotometry, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) were used to characterize these electrodes. Results show that liquid detergents should be preferred to powder ones. Indeed, the latter contain bleaching agents that tend to oxidize the silver layer, making it more vulnerable to the mechanical rubbings that tear off the silver layer progressively washes after washes. As a consequence, the silver-plated-nylon loses rapidly its conductivity so that the electrode is no longer able to sense biopotentials.

E-Textile Systems Reliability Assessment—A Miniaturized Accelerometer Used to Investigate Damage during Their Washing

“…The mechanical stress is probably the most damaging stress in the whole washing process. The inventions of new washing machines enhanced the ability to control mechanical stress using different suitable washing programs [ 13 , 31 , 36 , 37 ]. In a modern washing machine, the mechanical stress consists of the pressure, bending, hit, and friction among fabrics or between fabrics and the wall of drum.…”

Boxer Underwear Incorporating Textile Moisture Sensor to Prevent Nocturnal Enuresis

“…Hand washing is hardly acceptable for parents, especially in the middle of the night. A previous study [ 39 ] has already investigated the withstanding of this silver yarn to machine washing with the delicate cycle at 30 °C. However, some parents would rather use higher temperature such as 60 °C to clean urine soiling.…”

Proposal of a Lab Bench for the Unobtrusive Monitoring of the Bladder Fullness with Bioimpedance Measurements

“…Conventional gelelectrodes (Asept InMed, Quint-Fonsegrives, France), used for electrocardiography, were placed on the skin at four different locations on the lower abdomen. Textile electrodes, characterized in a previous study [ 63 ], will be used in future work. The ECG electrodes were connected to a multi-frequency impedance analyzer (Zscan, Bioparhom, Challes Les Eaux, France), which was linked to a computer displaying the results in real-time on the dedicated interface.…”