Chinese And American Scientists Jointly Develop Intelligent Textiles

Who is your best health care practitioner?

Clothes that are worn on your body.

This is not a night's talk or science fiction. Research teams from the United States and China have developed a new smart fiber that is a step towards the goal of smart clothing.

In the "nano express" magazine, which will be published in December 10th, University of Michigan professor Nicholas Kotov (Nicholas Kotov) and Jiangnan University professor Xu Chuanlai report on the new method of making smart fibers.

The paper has been published in the online edition of the magazine in advance.

In fact, electronic textiles have become a reality.

But the current electronic textiles are not flexible enough, too rigid, and are full of wires and sensors. They are very cumbersome to use and are not suitable for mass production.

The above research team used carbon nanotubes and electrolyte materials on cotton fibers.

Carbon nanotubes are ultrafine materials that are controlled by carbon atoms at nanometer (millionths of a millimeter) level. Tens of thousands of carbon nanotubes are lined up to have the width of a hair.

Compared with previous intelligent fiber manufacturing methods, this method is simpler and cheaper.

The researchers repeated the ordinary cotton thread into the carbon nanotube solution and then dryness.

This process does not require any additional electronic devices.

After so many times, cotton fibers have electrical conductivity.

In lab tests, the research team connected the new electronic fiber to the battery to light up a simple light-emitting diode.

Interestingly, once the cotton fibers adsorbed on carbon nanotubes are dried, the carbon nanotubes can not be separated from them by heating or using solvents.

This indicates that the added electrolyte material plays a role in ensuring the stability of the coating.

In addition, the hydrophilic property of the electrolyte material can also ensure the future comfort of the textile.

Xu Chuanlai told the finance and economics reporter that the materials developed by them are more durable and flexible, and are more similar to ordinary fabrics in terms of material quality.

He added that the carbon nanotubes modified fibers could be used in biomedical, environmental and food safety fields, such as monitoring disease and human vital signs, as biosensors for detecting environmental and food safety pollutants.

In addition, the research team detected albumin in the carbon nanotubes modified cotton fibers after adding albumin antibodies.

Albumin is a key protein in the blood, which is expected to detect bleeding in the wounded.

However, the effect of carbon nanotubes modified fibers on human body is still uncertain.

The research team pointed out in the paper that although a large number of cell culture data indicate that such carbon nanotubes coating is harmless, the long-term impact of skin contact needs further study.

Yang Jing: editor in charge