Conductive fibres and yarns have drawn considerable attention during the last decade. Generally speaking, textile materials made of organic polymers are perfect insulators. Due to weak electrical conductivity electrical load is accumulated on the surface of organic polymers. Therefore, to prevent the accumulation of electrical load, to enhance the possibility of electrical load transfer and to obtain electromagnetic shielding effect, the textile materials are turned into electrically conductor by using different methods.

Methods of producing conductive yarns can be summarized as follows:

• Adding carbon or metals in different forms such as wires, fibres or particles (eg. core spun, blends)
• Using inherently conductive polymers
• Coating with conductive substances

Adding carbon or metals in different forms such as wires, fibres or particles:

It is possible to obtain textiles with conductive property by inserting carbon or metals such as silver, steel, nickel to the structure, in the form of wires, fibres, and micro or nano particles. Carbon fibres and carbon filled fibres exhibit good conductive properties, but on the other hand, they have some aesthetic problems.

Metal fibres can be produced by using bundle-drawing process or shaving process. Metal fibres and wires which can be incorporated into textile structures have high conductivity, but they have also some disadvantages like their weight, cost and the damage which they can give to the textile machinery.

Using Inherently Conductive Polymers:

Inherently conductive polymers are polyanyline, polyvinyl alcohol, polypyrrole and polyamide 11 etc. Conductive polymers are still a developing area. Amongst these polymers polyanyline has attracted a lot of attention due to its good environmental, thermal and chemical stability. Although it was discovered over 150 years ago, only recently has polyaniline captured the attention of the scientific community due to the discovery of its high electrical conductivity. Actually conductive polymers are gaining more and more importance due to their advantages, but these polymers are still rather costly. They can be used in applications where flexibility, low weight and conductivity are required.

Coating with Conductive Substances:

Another important aspect is using coated conductive fibres. Coating can be applied through various techniques. Conductive polyester yarns and filaments of this kind are used in many application areas. Highly conductive fibres can be produced by metallic or galvanic coating, but these methods have some limitations with adhesion and corrosion resistance and suitability of the substrate. Metallic salt coatings have some limitations in conductivity.

By utilizing the conductive yarns in the fabric structures, various functionalities may be attributed to the fabrics. Enhancing both the properties of textile structures and the function of conductivity, conductive textiles have important applications not only in medical and military fields, but also in the fields of fashion, architecture and design for their aesthetic appeal. Therefore textiles with conductivity function are used in many technical applications such as protection of people and electronic devices from electromagnetic interference (EMI) and electrostatic discharge, heating, wearable electronics, data storage and transmission, sensors and actuators.