If the thought of a touchscreen shirt doesn’t make sense to you now, it just might in the near future: researchers from the University of Cambridge came up with what seems to be one of our first true views of our tech-savvy future, as they just made a smart “textile” woven out of fiber-based LEDs together with sensors and energy storage.
This ground-breaking research was published in the journal Nature Communications and was the brainchild of co-authors from the Cambridge Department of Engineering: professors Jong Min Kim and Manish Chhowalla, together with Dr. Luigi Occhipinti. The three were accompanied by a slew of researchers who all contributed to this novel technology.
The Cambridge press release called it “the first time that a scalable large-area complex system has been integrated into textiles using an entirely [fiber-based] manufacturing approach,” adding that while preexisting textile-based technologies had already been prototyped or researched prior to the work of Kim and the team, older developments have often led to either one-dimensional products or products whose manufacturing processes are “fiddly” at best.
The work of Kim and co-authors aimed to address both these shortcomings by integrating fiber-based LEDs into their “smart textile” material, adding to it other fiber-based input devices such as light sensors, temperature sensors, antennas, and an energy storage system, among others. The team also coated the fiber components with stretchable materials to make them compatible with traditional textile manufacturing equipment, with each fiber component attached to another via conductive adhesives and laser welding.
The overall technology, once deployed, can be used in several ways: displays, energy storage akin to rechargeable batteries, and detectors to signals like radio frequencies and light, to name a few. Plus, given its compatibility with traditional textile manufacturing processes, the smart textile can be woven into large rolls of fabric. (Read further about flexible electronics here.)
“Our approach is built on the convergence of micro and nanotechnology, advanced displays, sensors, energy, and technical textile manufacturing,” said Prof. Kim in a statement to Cambridge. “This is a step towards the full exploitation of sustainable, convenient [e-fibers] and e-textiles in daily applications. And it’s only the beginning.”
Dr. Occhipinti added: “By integrating [fiber-based] electronics, photonic, sensing and energy functionalities, we can achieve a whole new class of smart devices and systems. By unleashing the full potential of textile manufacturing, we could soon see smart and energy-autonomous Internet of Things (IoT) devices that are seamlessly integrated into everyday objects and many other sector applications.”
The team now aims to make these smart textiles sustainable in both production and use, as well as to explore potential applications in the field of energy storage, such as making batteries, supercapacitors, and solar panels.
References
- Choi, H. W., Shin, D.-W., Yang, J., Lee, S., Figueiredo, C., Sinopoli, S., Ullrich, K., Jovančić, P., Marrani, A., Momentè, R., Gomes, J., Branquinho, R., Emanuele, U., Lee, H., Bang, S. Y., Jung, S.-M., Han, S. D., Zhan, S., Harden-Chaters, W., … Kim, J. M. (2022). Smart textile lighting/display system with multifunctional fibre devices for large scale smart home and IoT applications. Nature Communications, 13(1), 814. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28459-6
- Collins, S. (2022, February 10). Scientists develop fully woven, smart display. University of Cambridge. https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/scientists-develop-fully-woven-smart-display
- Irving, M. (2022, February 11). Electronic textile makes for touchscreen curtains or clothes. New Atlas. https://newatlas.com/materials/electronic-led-smart-textile/
