Breakthrough in smart fabric for sensing and health monitoring
Imagine a coat that harnesses solar energy to keep you warm on a brisk winter walk, or a shirt that seamlessly monitors your heart rate and temperature. Picture athletes wearing smart clothing that tracks their performance, all without the burden of bulky battery packs.
Professor Yuning Li's research group has developed a smart fabric with these remarkable capabilities. The fabric can potentially harvest energy, monitor health, and track movement.
The new fabric, designed by the research team, can convert body heat and solar energy into electricity, potentially enabling continuous operation without the need for an external power source. Additionally, different sensors that monitor temperature, stress, and more can be integrated into the material.
PhD student Jun Peng wearing a mask made from the smart fabric
It can detect temperature changes and a range of other sensors to monitor pressure, chemical composition, and more. One promising application is smart face masks that can track breath temperature and rate, as well as detect chemicals in breath to help identify viruses, lung cancer, and other conditions.
“We have developed a fabric material with multifunctional sensing capabilities and self-powering potential,” said Yuning Li director of the Printable Electronic Materials Lab. “This innovation brings us closer to practical applications for smart fabrics.”
Unlike current wearable devices that often depend on external power sources or frequent recharging, this breakthrough research has created a novel fabric which is more stable, durable, and cost-effective than other fabrics on the market.
This research, conducted in collaboration with Professor Chaoxia Wang and PhD student Jun Peng from the College of Textile Science and Engineering at Jiangnan University, showcases the potential of integrating advanced materials such as MXene and conductive polymers with cutting-edge textile technologies to advance smart fabrics for wearable technology.
“AI technology is evolving rapidly, offering sophisticated signal analysis for health monitoring, food and pharmaceutical storage, environmental monitoring, and more. However, this progress relies on extensive data collection, which conventional sensors, often bulky, heavy, and costly, cannot meet. Printed sensors, including those embedded in smart fabrics, are ideal for continuous data collection and monitoring,” says Li. “This new smart fabric represents a significant step forward in making these applications practical.”
The next steps of research will focus on augmenting the fabric’s performance and integrating it with electronic components with multidisciplinary collaborators. Future developments may include a smartphone app to track and transmit data from the fabric to healthcare professionals, enabling real-time, non-invasive health monitoring and real-life applications.
The study is published in the Journal of Materials Science & Technology.