Although there are many potential applications of conductive "smart textiles", this kind of fiber cannot be as soft, comfortable, flexible and elastic as ordinary clothes, but American scientists have developed experimental double-sided fibers, which are both conductive and soft, strong and not easy to break.
The team at Washington State University in the United States created a new textile fabric by using recycled T-shirt cotton fibers and a conductive polymer polyaniline.
And the bonding process is not simple, because polyaniline is conductive but brittle, and cannot be made into textile fibers by itself. To solve this problem, the team dissolved the conductive polymer into a separate solution, extruded the two solutions with separate nozzles, and finally bonded them into a double-sided fiber, cotton fiber on one side and polyaniline on the other.
In laboratory tests, the new fibers exhibited excellent electrical conductivity, while also having the strength and flexibility of a cotton material, successfully entering the textile system, powering LEDs and sensing ammonia, among other things.
The team believes that the fiber can be used as a sensor patch for flexible circuits, integrated into clothing, used in fire brigade uniforms or military uniforms, to alert personnel to the presence of hazardous substances in the vicinity, and in everyday applications, it can also be used in medical or fitness applications to monitor athletes' performance.
Header**: Washington State University).