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DNA used as a “double helix” template for synthesis of flexible silver strings for conductive and electromagnetic shielding of cotton fabrics

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Abstract

Conductive cotton fabrics are increasingly used in intelligent wearables and as electromagnetic shielding. Cotton fabrics can be endowed with conductive properties by immobilizing conductive inorganic substances on them or by coating them with conductive polymers; however, cracking of the coating results in a sharp decrease in its conductive properties and limits the applications. To solve this problem, a binder of carboxymethyl chitosan and l-cysteine was used to adhere DNA strands onto the cotton fabric as a “double helix” template for the formation of conductive silver nanoparticle strings. The DNA was used to adsorb silver ions (Ag+); double-helix strings of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) were subsequently synthesized on the cotton fabric on exposure to a reducing agent. As a result of the double-helix structure, the Ag NP strings had a degree of elasticity and the conductive coating on the finished cotton fabric was very stable under the action of external forces. Even the finished fabric after withstand stretching, folding, or bending treatments, the surface resistance did not increase significantly. Finished fabrics prepared using this method therefore have excellent conductive stability, which considerably expands the range of application for conductive cotton fabrics.

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Acknowledgments

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Funding

This work was financially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Provincial (No. 2208085QE138), the Educational Commission of Anhui Province of China (No. KJ2021A0493), the Open Project Program of Anhui Engineering and Technology Research Center of Textile, Anhui Province College of Anhui Province College Key Laboratory of Textile Fabrics (No. 2021AETKL18), the Starting Research Fund from the Anhui Polytechnic University (No. S022021008), the University-level Project of Anhui Polytechnic University (No. KZ42022124), the project of Anhui Polytechnic University (XJKY2022085), the College Students Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program (No. JX22022107) and the Key Research and Development Projects of Anhui Province (No. 2022a05020069).

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  1. Xinyu Wang and Qingbo Xu have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Textile Fabric, College of Textiles and Clothing, Anhui Polytechnic University, Wuhu, 241000, Anhui, China

    Xinyu Wang, Qingbo Xu & Qian Chen

  2. Chery Automobile Co., Ltd., Wuhu, 240000, Anhui, China

    Qingbo Xu & Junhua Zhang

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  1. Xinyu Wang
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  2. Qingbo Xu
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  3. Junhua Zhang
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  4. Qian Chen
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Contributions

XW: Investigation. QX: Writing–original draft, writing-review draft, software, conceptualization, methodology, project funding acquisition. JZ: Investigation. QC: Investigation.

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Correspondence to Qingbo Xu.

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Wang, X., Xu, Q., Zhang, J. et al. DNA used as a “double helix” template for synthesis of flexible silver strings for conductive and electromagnetic shielding of cotton fabrics. Cellulose 31, 2603–2615 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-024-05740-z

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