Textile materials have the inherent ability to store electric charges. Electrifiability means the ability of a clothing to generate and retain an electrostatic field of significant strength for a relative long time.

The interest for investigation of the electrical properties of the fibres was generated with the use of fibres as insulating materials. Later, the resistance and capacity methods were used in instruments to determine the moisture content and the irregularity of the fibre assemblies.Applications of conductive textiles are more and more numerous in technical areas and cater to functions such as heating, conduction, or EMI shielding,prevention of static charges build-up.

Most of the textile and plastic materials are electrical insulators. They accumulate electrostatic charge, which causes problems such as severe shock, fire, dust accumulation, etc. during processing.The electrical conductivity is required to dissipate the charges and use of fibres blended with conductive type of fibres prevents such risk. Low and limiting electrical conduction is required in many practical applications such as electromagnetic shielding, electrostatic elimination, conveyor belts,aviation/space suits, dry filtration, carpets etc. For this purpose, various products having reasonably good electrical conductivity are required. This can be obtained by incorporating metal fillers or coating with some agent. The textile materials being flexible and easily workable are the most preferred one in such cases.

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About the Author:

Dr.Ruma Chakrabarti is an Associate Professor at the Kumaraguru College of Technology, Coimbatore