Conductive cotton fabric using laser pre-treatment and electroless plating

This paper presents the fabrication and characterization of laser-treated conductive cotton fabrics by means of copper metallization techniques. The physical properties of the laser-treated knitted samples were examined in terms of thickness, durability, and abrasion impact. Furthermore, the surface topography of the laser-treated substrates was analyzed using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) before and after the coating process and samples demonstrated remarkably uniform deposition of copper metal nanoparticles on the surface of the fabric. An energy dispersing spectroscopy (SEM-EDX) analysis was carried out to determine the elemental composition on the surface of the substrate after the electroless metallization method. The study found that laser-treated samples showed better resistance to wear compared to untreated fabric samples. Since abrasion resistance is key property in electronic textile applications, laser-treated samples could, therefore, be ideal candidates for electronic textile applications. As a result, laser treatment has been shown to be successful in improving the abrasion resistance of conductive textile fabrics.