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The lack of a light and sustainable food source is a major factor hindering the development of portable biosensors for health surveillance. Scientists at the University of Mbadachusetts at Amherst, led by materials chemist Trisha L. Andrew, said they have developed a method to create a load storage system that easily integrates into clothing to "embroider a pattern of storing loads on any garment".
As Andrew explains, "Batteries or other types of charge storage are still the limiting components of most wearable, portable, ingestible or flexible technologies. to be a combination of too big, too heavy and not flexible. " [19659005] Their new method uses a micro-supercapacitor and combines steam-coated lead wires with a polymer film, as well as a special sewing technique to create a flexible mesh of electrodes aligned on a textile backing. The resulting semiconductor device has a large capacity to store charges for its size and other features enabling it to power portable biosensors.
Andrew adds that while researchers have remarkably miniaturized many electronic circuit components, not to be said for charge storage devices. "With this paper, we show that we can literally embroider a pattern of storing loads on any garment using the steam-coated yarns made by our lab.This opens the door to simply sewing circuits on smart clothes self-powered. " Details on line in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces .
Andrew and postdoctoral researcher and first author Lushuai Zhang, as well as graduate student in chemical engineering Wesley Viola, point out that supercapacitors are ideal candidates for portable charge storage circuits because they inherently have higher power densities compared to batteries.
But "incorporating electrochemically active materials with high electrical conductivity and rapid ionic transport into textiles is a challenge," they add. Andrew and colleagues show that their steam coating process creates porous conductive polymer films on highly twisted wires, which can easily swell with electrolyte ions and maintain a high load storage capacity per unit length compared to work Previous made with dyed or extruded fibers. [19659005] Andrew, director of the clothing electronics laboratory at UMbad Amherst, notes that textile scientists have tended not to use vapor deposition because of technical difficulties and high costs, but more recently, research have shown that the technology can be expanded and remain profitable.
She and her team are currently working with the personalized health monitoring center of UMbad Amherst Institute's Personalized Health Monitoring Center for Applied Life Sciences to incorporate the new bays. Embroidered load storage with e-textile sensors and clothing microprocessors that can monitor the gait and movement of a person's joints throughout a normal day.
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More information:
Lushuai Zhang et al., Super-integrated micro-capacitors in a garment and high-density energy, intended for the supply of portable electronic devices, Materials and interfaces applied to the ACS (2018). DOI: 10.1021 / acsami.8b08408
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