Tunable Color Coating of E-Textiles by Atomic Layer Deposition of Multilayer TiO 2 /Al 2 O 3 Films

• Published in: Langmuir Vol. 36; no. 11; pp. 2794 - 2801
• Main Authors: Khan, Mohammad Rizwan, Kim, Hyun Gu, Park, Jong Seo, Shin, Jong Woo, Nguyen, Chi Thang, Lee, Han-Bo-Ram
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 24-03-2020
• ISSN: 0743-7463; 1520-5827
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.9b03988

We successfully fabricated a conductive E-textile and color-coated E-textile by depositing multilayer Al
O
/TiO
on a conductive E-textile through atomic layer deposition (ALD). Pt was deposited on an E-textile as a conductive layer via low-temperature ALD. The color of the coated conductive E-textile could be tuned to violet, green, or pink by simply varying the thickness of the Al
O
and TiO
layers. Both experimental and simulation results revealed that seven different colors can be obtained with single-layer TiO
and multilayer Al
O
/TiO
, depending on the film thickness and their refractive indices. This method is highly effective for enhancing the fastness of structural color on conductive E-textiles. Furthermore, the mechanical properties and chemical stability of the color-coated E-textiles were investigated. The color-coated E-textiles could withstand acidic and basic solutions, with almost negligible changes in their morphology; this in turn indicates their excellent chemical stability. These switchable stable color-based conductive E-textiles can be used as a platform to directly integrate future wearable electronics in textiles.