In a breakthrough, a team of scientists at Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Thiruvananthapuram has developed a semi-conducting fabric that can help discharge static charge. The team has filed for a patent, as conducting fabrics can find many takers in the West.

The work was published in Angewandte Chemie, an international journal published on behalf of the German Chemical Society.

Static electricity is an issue which causes much concern in cold countries according to Kana M Sureshan, the School of Chemistry associate professor who led the team. He pointed out that static charge, in dry winter air causes many mishaps in western countries.The static charge in our body, if not discharged, can spark a huge fire. If the fabric we wear is a conducting material, there will be no extra static charge on our body.

Sureshan said currently attempts to make conducting fabrics involve physical blending of conducting materials such as carbon or metal with the fabric. But these run the risk of getting abraded or leached out during washing.

Sureshan’s team at IISER employed a technique employed by which the entire fabric is modified, and there is no question of a dopant getting abraded.

The team dipped cotton into a sugar-based gelator. Because of the high sugar-sugar interaction, the gelator 'stuck' to cotton by means of hydrogen bonding. Attached to each molecule of the gelator were diacetylene motifs. The cotton glued with the gelator was subjected to ultraviolet irradiation.

Irradiation turned diacetylenes into polydiacetylenes, which are semiconducting materials. The resulting fibre turned pink. The fibre can be recoloured. (SH)