Recent progress to address the challenges of conductive inks for e-textiles

Abstract

Fabricating printed electronic inks that are highly stable on textile substrates has remained a challenge for researchers to fully achieve e-textiles for various sensing and health monitoring applications. This review reports progress in addressing challenges with conductive inks for e-textiles. Relevant studies highlight major achievements including developing stable carbon nanotube and graphene inks with consistent electrical properties, formulating silver nanowire inks with excellent conductivity and flexibility, and enhancing the adhesion of carbon nanotube inks to fabrics without pretreatment. Key findings show improved dispersion and biocompatibility of carbon nanotubes using silk protein, high stability of graphene inks in optimized solvents, and flexible semiconductor inks able to withstand bending. Overall, advances have expanded the capabilities of e-textile devices fabricated with conductive inks.