A team of engineers at the University of Delaware is developing next-generation smart textiles by creating flexible carbon nanotube composite coatings on a wide range of fibers, including cotton, nylon and wool.
Fabric coated with this sensing technology could be used in future “smart garments” where the sensors are slipped into the soles of shoes or stitched into clothing for detecting human motion.
Carbon nanotubes give this light, flexible, breathable fabric coating impressive sensing capability. When the material is squeezed, large electrical changes in the fabric are easily measured.
Nerve-like electrically conductive nanocomposite coatings are created on the fibers using electrophoretic deposition (EPD) of polyethyleneimine functionalized carbon nanotubes.
A scalable electrophoretic deposition (EPD) approach is used to create novel thin, flexible, and lightweight carbon nanotube-based textile pressure sensors. The pressure sensors can be produced using an extensive variety of natural and synthetic fibers.
The electrically conductive nanocomposite coating is firmly bonded to the fiber surface and shows piezoresistive electrical/mechanical coupling. The pressure sensor displays a large in-plane change in electrical conductivity with applied out-of-plane pressure.
In-plane conductivity change results from fiber/fiber contact as well as the formation of a sponge-like piezoresistive nanocomposite “interphase” between the fibers. The resilience of the nanocomposite interphase enables sensing of high pressures without permanent changes to the sensor response, showing high repeatability.
One potential application of the sensor-coated fabric is to measure forces on people’s feet as they walk. This data could help clinicians assess imbalances after injury or help to prevent injury in athletes.
This technology could also be promising for sports medicine applications, post-surgical recovery, and for assessing movement disorders in pediatric populations.
Thin, flexible, highly sensitive sensors like these could help physical therapists and doctors assess a child’s mobility remotely, meaning that clinicians could collect more data, and possibly better data, in a cost-effective way that requires fewer visits to the clinic than current methods do.
News Source: https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2018/august/smart-textiles-nanotube-sensors/
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