The conductivity of a poly (3, 4-ethylenedioxythiophene): poly (styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT: PSS) film can be enhanced by more than two orders of magnitude with two or more polar groups, such as ethylene glycol, methanol or DMSO [1, 2, 3], when added to an aqueous solution of PEDOT: PSS. The mechanism of this conductivity enhancement was studied. The aim of this paper is to investigate the effects of coating process on the electrical properties of coated polyester fabric substrates. For this paper surface resistance of PEDOT: PSS coated polyester fabric was investigated as a function of immersion time (5 and 15) and drying conditions (Vacuum and no vacuum) by simple treatment with methanol and ethylene glycol. For this, 24 coated fabrics designed with Minitab software (DOE), with three replicates and two levels, were produced by using polyester base fabric and PEDOT: PSS as a conductive polymer to study how after-treatment of PEDOT: PSS coated fabric by ethylene glycol and methanol as a conductive enhancer affects the electrical surface resistance of coated fabric. The electrical resistance of PEDOT: PSS coated fabric were measured before and after chemical treatments. The measured data were evaluated with the design of experiments and analysis of variance to determine the coating parameters at 95% confidence level.

The result of the experiment showed that it is possible to enhance the electrical conductivity of PEDOT: PSS coated textiles by simple after-treatment by using ethylene glycol and methanol as a conductive enhancer. The electrical surface resistance was decreased by a two orders of magnitude when using this method. Altogether, an effective simple treatment of coated polyester fabric was presented to achieve functional textiles that offer a broad range of possible applications.