Scientists from Britain, Italy, China have been able to integrate a washable electronic circuit that can stretch and drain moisture into the fabric, opening up new possibilities for smart textile materials and tools. Electronic can wear (wear) on people. Electronic circuits are made from environmentally friendly, safe and cheap ink, and are printed using traditional inkjet printing.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge, together with colleagues from Italy and China, have demonstrated how two-dimensional graphene of carbon can be printed directly onto fabrics to produce integrated electronics. comfortable to wear and can withstand 20 cycles in typical washing machine.

New electronic devices are printed from graphene based printing ink and other two-dimensional materials, and are produced using standard machining techniques, which can be scaled up to print, scalable and durable. low cost; The results are published in the journal Nature Communications.

Based on previous research on formulation for graphene ink for printed electronics, the team designed ink with low boiling point, which was printed directly onto polyester fabric. In addition, they have found that the improvement of fabric roughness has improved the performance of the printed instrument. The versatility of the process allowed researchers to design not only transistors but also integrated circuits, incorporating active and passive components.

Most of the existing wearable electronics are based on hard electronic components mounted on plastics, rubber or textiles. These ingredients have limited interoperability with the skin in many cases, and are vulnerable to washing and are not comfortable to wear because they do not drain.

The work has opened up the possibility of commercializing two-dimensional printing materials, from personal health to leisure care, portable energy storage and storage devices, military clothing and equipment. computing and fashion.

The use of graphene and ink with other related 2D materials (GRMs) to create electronic components and tools incorporated into new fabrics and textile materials is the focus of technical advances. new in the textile industry smart. Teams at the Cambridge Graph Center and the Politecnico di Milano are also involved in the Graphene Flagship project, an EC funded project, involving several European countries to bring graphene and GRM technology into commercial use.

The research was supported by grants from the Graphene Flagship, the European Research Council's Synergy Grant, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the Newton Trust, the International Research Program of the National Science Foundation and the Ministry of Science. Chinese Science Technology. The technology being commercialized by Cambridge Enterprise is a commercial enterprise of Cambridge University.

Nguyen Hoang Minh: http://www.fibre2fashion.com