A facile approach to prepare a flexible and durable electrically driven cotton fabric-based heater

Flexible and durable electrically driven heaters (EDHs) was prepared by using silver nanowire/polydopamine modified cotton fabric (AgNW/PDA-C) as Joule heat generator and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as stretchable matrix.The electric property of the EDHs was investigated, and it can show excellent electrical property and stability. The EDHs can be seen from the SEM morphology that cotton fabric was well protected by the PDMS and has good conductive network. The EDHs also exhibit excellent electrothermal performance under applied voltage. At low-voltages, it can quickly reach satisfactory steady-state temperatures that meet the needs of wearables. By improving the electrothermal model, it can be verified that there is a quadratic function relationship between electric power and steady-state temperature. Under cyclic voltage and bending tests, the EDHs can well maintain steady-state temperature and exhibit excellent dynamic and static electrothermal performance.