Electro-spinning breakthrough for high-tech clothing

Materials scientists have developed a new nonwoven material that is electrically conductive as well as flexible and breathable.

The German and Chinese team say this paves the way for comfortable high-tech clothes that convert sunlight to warmth, supply wearable electronic devices with electricity, or contain sensors for fitness training.

“In addition to articles of clothing, similar functions could also just as easily be installed in textile materials for use in seats and instruments in cars or airplanes,” explained Professor Andreas Greiner, Chair of Macromolecular Chemistry at the University of Bayreuth in Germany. “Our approach, which takes the production of conductive textiles as its basis, can in principle be applied to many different systems.”

In contrast to common methods of production, metal wires were not inserted into finished textiles. The German team and their Chinese partners modified classical electro-spinning, which has been used to produce nonwovens for many years. Short electro-spun polymer fibres and small amounts of tiny silver wires with a diameter of only 80 nanometres are mixed in a liquid then filtered, dried, and briefly heated up. If the composition is right, the resulting nonwoven material exhibits a very high degree of electrical conductivity.

This opens up a whole range of possibilities for innovative applications, especially in the area of smart clothes (i.e. wearables). Everyday clothing, for example, can be equipped with solar cells such that the captured sunlight is converted to warmth, heating up the textiles themselves. Mobile phones, cameras, mini-computers, and other wearable electronic devices could be charged by plugging them into the textiles. Sensors installed in the clothes could provide athletes and trainers with important fitness and health data or could give family and friends information on its location.

The findings were published in Flexible Electronics.