Ions are prevalent within bioelectronics, as they are the main charge carriers in living systems. In contrast to electronic systems, ionic ones are closer to what can be found in our body; in muscles, neurons and nerves.

Textiles are a much-used biomedical material, both in vivo and in vitro due to its membrane character, highly efficient area, softness, biocompatibility and biodegradability. Modifying the physicochemical properties of the core or the surface of textile has been reported a countless number of times, but still, its use in a bioelectrical context is limited.

Fibres are the building blocks of textiles and what make textiles an architected class of material. Then ionically conductive fibres are of great interest.

Here, we show the preparation of iono-conductive textile fibres through the (semi-)continuous dip-coating of ionogel on the cellulose-based viscose.

Ionogels are composed of salts in liquid state and a 3-dimensional solid network, in our case an ionic liquid (IL), 1-Ethyl-3-methylimidazolium trifluoromethanesulfonate, commonly named EMIm OTf or EMIm Triflate, and a thiol acrylate network, allowing the mobility of the ions within or in/out of the gel. This specific combination is a first effort towards the development of ionic textile fibres and ionic smart textiles, as a variety of ILs with different cations and anions exists, potentially allowing a large number of different combinations.

We investigate how the coating of this ionogel affects the mechanical properties as well as the conductivity in AC or DC arrangement and their relation to temperature and humidity. Also, the thermal stability and sensitivity of degradation of the fibre system is studied.

Moreover, we introduce different textile structures, and potential applications directed to bioelectronics.