In this article, layer-by-layer assembly technology was used to prepare polyaniline (PANI)/nylon conducting fabrics. PANI/nylon conductive composite fabrics were prepared by deposition of polyanion (PSS) and polycation (aniline cation) alternately. The pretreatment with PSS was discussed. The influence of the reaction time, aniline concentration, acid concentration and assembly time on the conductivity, and K/S values of composite fabric was studied. The optical reaction condition of assembly should be: the concentration of PSS was 20 g/L, the PSS-treated nylon immersion in blended bath for 24 min, ammonium persulfate 0.1 mol/L, aniline 0.1 mol/L, p-toluene sulfonic acid 0.3 mol/L. In the end, the conductive composite fabrics were characterized by fourier transformed Infrared-attenuated total reflection spectroscopy and compared with pure nylon fabrics. At the same time, scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscope (AFM), thermogravimetric analysis (TG), and mechanical properties were studied. (c) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013