Conductive fibers: creation/developmentof woven moisture detector with electrcally conductive threads

Currently, many intelligent materials applied in textiles have been developed, such as photonic fibers, shape memory materials, conductive materials, phase change materials, chromic materials, mechanical responsive materials, intelligent coating/membranes, micro and nanomaterials and piezoelectric materials. With the rapid development of the electrical and, particularly, the electronics industry, flexible electrically conducting and semiconducting materials, such as conductive polymers, conductive fibers, threads, yarns, coatings and ink, are receiving widespread attention. They are playing a more and more important role in realizing lightweight, wireless and wearable interactive electronic textiles. The objective of this thesis was the study and manufacture of a humidity detector fabric which acts as an alarm when a liquid gets in touch with it. Therefore, e-textiles also known as intelligent textiles, are smart materials that have an electronic or conductive compound in them, such as conductive yarns, conductive coatings, sensors, etc. All the technologies to produce a sensor were studied in order to choose the best option to recreate a prototype of a humidity sensor.The woven option with conductive threads was chosen due to the lackof humidity detectors made by this method. With the help of a fabric design software called Penelope Cad Systems.The fabric has been able to produce a sort of a humidity detector prototype with a high sensitivity. Furthermore, a study of functionality of the fabric and durability of the conductive yarns has been made. The tests of durability are abrasion and pilling by the Martindale method. Also a washing test has been made to observe if conductives yarns keep their properties. These tests were chosen because this fabric was thought to be a kind of bedspread or bed sheet for a medical purpose. Finally, the results of the fabric developed have been presented in order to discern if it is functional and viable or not. These results can b