| The ability to create novel inorganic-organic-metal ordered structures with molecular level precision opens the possibility of developing multifunctional textiles for a myriad of applications including active filtration, bio-separation of proteins, catalytic mantles, and electronic fabrics as well as novel barrier and anti-counterfeiting materials. Due to the high curvature and heterogeneous nature of textile fibers, existing surface modification technologies are not capable of providing complete coverage of a fiber/fabric surface. The use of self-assembly techniques and self-limiting reactant adsorption processes offer the possibility of achieving fully conformal, uniform functionalization of textile fibers of any continuous shape. Atomic layer deposition and electrostatic self-assembly have been used in the semiconductor industry to produce uniform self-organized molecular assemblies over large areas of uniform and clean surfaces such as silicon wafers. However, the use of these techniques in textiles has been largely unexplored.;The goal of this research was to determine the feasibility of using layer-by-layer and atomic layer deposition as methods of textile modification. This research has also investigated the optimum processing conditions that allow the selective and controlled deposition of organic, inorganic, and metallic substances on textile substrates via self-assembled nanolayers and atomic layer deposition techniques. |
