Researchers develop special fabrics for washable and wearable batteries

Researchers from the University of Cambridge and colleagues from Jiangnan University in China have developed electronic components that can be directly integrated into fabrics for use in flexible circuits, medical monitoring, energy conversion and other applications. Researchers have shown how graphene and related materials can be directly incorporated into fabrics to produce charge storage elements such as capacitors. Researchers say their results have paved the way for washable, flexible and comfortable textile power supplies. Textile electronic equipment is based on low-cost, sustainable and scalable polyester fabric dyeing. The ink used for printing is made using standard solution processing techniques. The technology designed by the team can integrate various types of electronic components into the fabric. Other wearable electronic devices rely on rigid electronic components mounted on plastic or textiles. The research team created their process by suspending individual graphene sheets in a low-boiling solvent, which can be easily removed after being deposited on the fabric. The result is a thin and uniform conductive network composed of multiple graphene sheets. Stack several graphene and hexagonal boron nitride fabrics together to form an active area that can store charges. This work paved the way for various business opportunities, such as personal health and fitness technology, wearable energy, data storage, specialty clothing, wearable computing, fashion, and more. The researchers did not specify when the technology will be commercially available.