Highly conductive and environmentally stable gold/graphene yarns for flexible and wearable electronics

Abstract

Here, we fabricated high-performance gold/graphene yarns through a facile method by the electroless deposition of gold nanoparticles onto the surface of graphene yarns. The gold/graphene yarns are fabricated using a completely solution-based process that can be scaled up for practical applications. They possess high electrical conductivity (2.86 × 10² S cm⁻¹) and good gravimetric specific conductivity (6.81 × 10² S cm² g⁻¹) as well as good reliability under 1000 bending tests with a maximum bending angle of 170° and 10 washing tests with laundry detergents. These stable conducting yarns could also be integrated into textiles and clothes in various forms to create smart fabrics and wearable devices. In addition, this facile approach is easily applicable to various graphene films and devices on soft substrates that are presently used in flexible/wearable electronics.