## Materials and Methods  
### Materials and Their Treatment  
Four groups of samples were manufactured for this research work where, for each group, different woven fabrics were used as the substrates, per Table 1.  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Group of Samples (and Substrate View, Magnified \(\times\)60)**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Code of Fabric**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Description**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Mean Mass Per Unit**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Thickness,**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**No. of Warp**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**No. of Wift**} \\  & & & & & **Threads** & & **Threads** \\  & & & & & **Per 1 cm** & & **Per 1 cm** \\ \hline \multirow{6}{*}{**I**} & \multirow{6}{*}{S1} & Substrate (1)—100 \% & \multirow{6}{*}{} & \multirow{6}{*}{} & \multirow{6}{*}{} & \multirow{6}{*}{} & \multirow{6}{*}{} \\  & & & & & & & \\  & & & & & & & \\  & & & & & & & \\  
Plasma pre-treatment: To achieve a better resistance performance of coated fabrics, plasma treatment before coating was used. An industrial scale Atmospheric Plasma Treatment System from Sigma Technologies, model 2M (Sigma Technologies Int'l, LLC, Tucson AZ, 85737 USA), was used. Three types of treatment were used: oxygen (O\({}_{2}\)), nitrogen (N\({}_{2}\)), and Corona (air). For oxygen and nitrogen, 45% of these gasses was used, which correspond a flow rate of 450 sccm, and 100% of a carrier gas (argon), which correspond a flow rate of 15,000 sccm. The power of 15 kW and speed of 3.3 Hz (ca 10 m/min) was applied. Before and after plasma treatment, the fabrics were evaluated regarding an aqueous liquid repellency test (according to ISO 23232 standard [36]), known as the drop test, and by measuring the contact angles for the water solvent, using the tensiometer equipment. The aqueous repellency grade/level is the highest numbered test liquid which is not absorbed by the substrate surface. The higher the aqueous solution repellency grade, the better the resistance to staining by aqueous materials, especially liquid aqueous substances. The aqueous solution repellency grade of a substrate is the numerical value of the highest-numbered test liquid which will not wet the substrate within a period of (10 \(\pm\) 2) s. a grade of zero (0) is assigned when the substrate fails the 98% water solution test liquid. According to the results obtained after preliminary experiment with different plasma treatments it was concluded that the plasma treatment with corona is the best, since there was a significant improvement in the hydrophilicity for those samples (S1 and S3), which initially were rather hydrophobic--their repellency level was 3, presenting a high hydrophobicity. For the other two fabrics (S2 and S4), the initial repellency level was 0 due to their high hydrophilicity. fabrics (substrates). Therefore, for selected fabrics--substrates (Table 1), before coating with conductive composition plasma treatment with corona (2 passages) was applied. After the optimization of plasma treatment, the fabrics were evaluated through the aqueous liquid repellence test. The results obtained to the untreated and plasma treated fabrics are presented in Table 2.  
Coating: For imparting conductivity properties, samples of woven fabrics after plasma treatment as well as samples without plasma treatment were coated with the paste--Clevios SV3, produced by Heraeus (Hanau, Germany). Properties of conductive paste are presented in Table 3. The conductive composition used contains conjugated polymer system--poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS), with concentration 1-3% \(w/w\). The measured viscosity (20 \({}^{\circ}\)C) of Clevios SV3 is 20 Pa s and pH is 1.7. The weight ratio of PEDOT to PSS is about 1:2.5. The tested substrates were coated in the laboratory, using a screen printing method. In order to bond and fix the conductive layer on the fabric, the samples were dried in laboratory oven and steamer TEOS IM 350 (Roaches International, Birstall, West Yorkshire, UK) at condensation temperature of 120 \({}^{\circ}\)C for 4 min.