Multifunctional wearable electronic textiles have been the focus of much attention due to their great potential in healthcare, sportswear, fitness and aerospace applications. In recent years, smart wearable textiles have experienced a renaissance through innovation, miniaturization, and the wireless revolution.
With the continuous advancement of technology, people have worked hard to integrate textile-based sensors into clothing. However, the current manufacturing process is complex, time-consuming, expensive, and the materials used are non-biodegradable and use unstable metals as conductivity. material.
Because of its high electrical conductivity and flexibility, graphene is considered a potentially good material for these types of applications. Each atom in graphene is exposed to its environment, making it able to sense changes in the surrounding environment, making it an ideal material for sensors.
As reported by ACS Nano, the process developed by the team of the National Graphene Institute in the UK can use existing textile machinery to produce tons of conductive graphene-based yarns without increasing production costs. In addition to mass-produced yarns, graphene-based yarns are also washable, flexible, inexpensive, and biodegradable.
This sensor, made from graphene-based yarns, can be integrated into self-powered RFID or Bluetooth low energy to send data wirelessly to mobile devices.
We believe that our ultra-fast production process for graphene-based textiles will be an important step towards achieving the next generation of high-performance apparel. Dr. Nazmul Karim said.
One obstacle to the advancement of wearable electronic textiles is the bulky components needed to power them. Previously, it had been difficult to incorporate these components without compromising the nature or comfort of the material, which has seen the rise of personal smart devices such as fitness watches.
The paper's lead author, Dr. Shaila Afroj, started the project during his Ph.D. and said, "To introduce a new and exciting material such as graphene to a very traditional and mature textile industry, the biggest challenge is to make Scalability of the process. Here we overcome this challenge by producing graphene materials and graphene-based textiles using fast and ultra-fast production processes. We reportedly produce thousands of kilograms of graphene-based yarns in one hour. Technology is a major breakthrough for the textile industry. "
Dr. Nazmul Karim, another leading author and knowledge exchange researcher (Graphene) at the National Graphene Institute, said: "Due to recent textile innovations, high-performance apparel is undergoing a transformation. The textile industry is increasingly focusing on the use of graphene Excellent and versatile properties for smart and functional clothing applications. "
Paper Information:
Engineered graphene sheet for wearable textile sensors with highly scalable and ultra-fast yarn dyeing technology
ACS Nano, Article ASAP
DOI: 10.1021 / acsnano.9b00319
Summary:
Multifunctional wearable e-textiles have been a focus of much attention due to their great potential for healthcare, sportswear, fitness, space, and military applications. Among them, electroconductive textile yarn shows great promise for use as next-generation flexible sensors without compromising the properties and comfort of usual textiles. However, the current manufacturing process of metal-based electroconductive textile yarn is expensive, unscalable, and environmentally unfriendly. Here we report a highly scalable and ultrafast production of graphene-based flexible, washable, and bendable wearable textile sensors. We engineer graphene flakes and their dispersions in order to select the best formulation for wearable textile application. We then use a high-speed yarn dyeing technique to dye (coat) textile yarn with graphene-based inks. Such graphene-based yarns are then integrated into a knitted structure as a flexible sensor and could send data wirelessly to a device via a self-po wered RFID or a low-powered Bluetooth. The graphene textile sensor thus produced shows excellent temperature sensitivity, very good washability, and extremely high flexibility. Such a process could potentially be scaled up in a high-speed industrial setup to produce tonnes (∼1000 kg / h) of electroconductive textile yarns for next-generation wearable electronics applications.
Multifunctional wearable electronic textiles have been the focus of much attention due to their great potential in healthcare, sportswear, fitness, space and military applications. Among them, conductive textile yarns show great promise as a next-generation flexible sensor without compromising the performance and comfort of ordinary textiles. However, the current manufacturing process of metal-based conductive textile yarns is expensive, non-scalable and environmentally unfriendly. Here we report a highly scalable and ultra-fast production of graphene-based flexible, washable and bendable wearable textile sensors. We design graphene flakes and their dispersions to select the best formulation for wearable textile applications. We then dyed (coated) textile yarns with graphene-based inks using high-speed yarn dyeing technology. This graphene-based yarn is then integrated into the knitted structure as a flexible sensor, and data can be sent wirelessly to the device via self-powered RFID or low-power Bluetooth. The graphene textile sensor produced in this way exhibits excellent temperature sensitivity, very good washability and extremely high flexibility. This process can be scaled up in high-speed industrial equipment to produce tons (~ 1000 kg / h) of conductive textile yarns for the next generation of wearable electronics applications.