Innovation: The Great Potential Of Electronic Textiles Made From New Cellulose Fibers

Electronic textiles provide revolutionary new opportunities in various fields, especially in the field of health care. But for sustainable development, they have to be made of renewable materials. A team led by Chalmers Polytechnic University in Sweden now shows a thread made of conductive cellulose, which offers fascinating and practical possibilities for electronic textiles.

"Micro, wearable electronics are becoming more and more common in our daily lives. At present, however, they usually rely on rare or, in some cases, toxic materials. They also lead to the accumulation of large amounts of electronic waste. "There's a real need for organic, renewable materials for electronic textiles," said sozan darabi, a doctoral student in the Department of chemistry and chemical engineering at Chalmers Polytechnic University and the Wallenberg Wood Science Center and lead author of the science. Recently published on ASC Applied Materials & interfaces.

Sozan darabi has been working with the same team of researchers, Anja Lund, on conducting fibers for electronic textiles for several years. The previous focus was on silk, but these discoveries are now further discovered through the use of cellulose.

The results presented by the researchers now show that cellulose thread has great potential as a material for electronic textiles and can be used in a variety of ways.

Researchers have now sewed conductive cellulose threads into fabrics using standard household sewing machines, and have successfully produced a thermoelectric textile that generates a small amount of electricity when one side is heated, for example, by the heat of the human body. At a temperature difference of 37 ℃, textiles can generate about 0.2 MW of electrical energy.

"This cellulose thread could lead to garments with built-in electronic, intelligent features made from non-toxic, renewable and natural materials," sozan darabi said

The production process of cellulose line was developed by coauthors at the University of Alto, Finland. In the subsequent process, Chalmers researchers made the wires conductive by dyeing them with conductive polymer materials. The researchers' measurements show that the dyeing process gives cellulose filaments a record high conductivity - which can be further improved by adding silver nanowires. In the test, the conductivity was maintained after several cleaning.

Electronic textiles can improve our lives in many ways. An important area is health care, in which functions such as regulating, monitoring and measuring various health indicators may benefit greatly.

In the broader textile industry, the transition to sustainable raw materials has always been a critical issue, and natural materials and fibers have become increasingly common alternatives to synthetic fibers. Conductive cellulose wires can also play an important role here, the researchers said.

"Cellulose is a wonderful material that can be extracted and recycled sustainably, and we will see more and more cellulose in the future. What's more, when the product is made of homogeneous materials or as few materials as possible, the recycling process will become easier, and Christian Muller, a professor of chemical and chemical engineering at Chalmers Polytechnic University, who led the research on the technology, said: "this is another view that cellulose thread is very promising for the development of electronic textiles."

The Chalmers team worked with colleagues in Sweden, Finland and South Korea at the Wallenberg Wood Science Center, the National Research Center.

Both sozan darabi and Christian m ü ller agree that the research is not limited to the latest scientific publications. Sozan darabi has grown from a student to an expert in the field of conductive fiber materials, which Christian m ü ller believes is very beneficial and provides a powerful force for their research team.

Through the Wallenberg Wood Science Center, the Swedish National Research Center, a team from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm was also involved in the research and publication of the study. Kth researchers focus on the electrochemical aspects of fibers. Together with kth's team, the Chalmers team is planning ways to take these ideas to new heights.