Electrically conductive and UV protective graphene surface-modified polyester blends

Pure fabrics (polyester, cotton and wool) and blend fabrics (polyester/cotton and polyester/wool) were surface modified with reduced GO (rGO) and the modification was confirmed by field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analyses. Also, the roughness parameters were determined. From the color parameters, the unmodified fabrics have higher lightness and solar reflectance than the rGO-modified ones which indicate the presence of dark rGO inside the fabric. Dielectric Spectroscopy, BDS, was employed to investigate the dielectric and electrical properties of the prepared samples on a broad range of frequency 0.1–20 MHz. The rGO-modification enhances dramatically the electrical conductivity of the pure fabrics and their blends to be in the range of 10−3 and 10−4 S/cm that could be considered as synthetic metal textiles. This makes rGO-modified fabrics promising as smart textiles in different potential applications as flexibly conductive wearable textiles in sensing, energy storage and conversion devices.