US Scientists Study Smart Clothing That Can Act As A Power Source.

American scientists have taken the first step in designing flexible and lightweight textiles, which can be used in smart clothing as a power source.

Electronic textile, also known as "smart" textile, is a kind of fiber with built-in functions such as sensing, data storage and communication.

Like other electronic products, "smart" fabrics also need power.

The traditional power supply is too big and inconvenient to wear, so it is very necessary to integrate the power supply with clothing.

Attempts have already begun for wearable energy storage devices, including non-woven materials that are not commonly used in clothing, and expensive active materials such as carbon nanotubes and nanowires.

Yury Gogotsi of Drake University University in Philadelphia and his colleagues try to add porous carbon powder to the fibers we wear every day, such as cotton and polyester materials, and utilize the natural multi aperture characteristics of these materials in Drexel University.

With the help of common technologies such as screen printing, inkjet printing and dip coating, textile electronics can be generated in large scale without the need to develop new processes at cost.

Gogotsi said, "our work has made great achievements in this field.

Electronics can store 400-700 times more energy per unit area than before, but remain flexible and harmless.

The new materials also have great potential in textiles and clothing. "

There are gaps between knitted and knitted fibers and yarns. Carbon powder can be inserted into these crevices and ensure that ions can be pferred.

Compared with previous technologies, Gogotsi's team can achieve greater production capacity.

Tushar Ghosh, a textile engineering expert at North Carolina State University, said, "this relatively simple method of producing electrical conductivity of textile substrates will have a wide range of effects.

The research results will contribute greatly to the necessary knowledge structure of energy acquisition and storage in the future, although there is still a certain distance from the final product, but there is hope to develop this technology and apply it to various intelligent clothing equipment, thus playing a role in various fields such as medical, military and even space exploration.