Highly Stretchable Ionic and Electronic Conductive Fabric

Pengfei Deng; Xuan Li; Yanbin Wang; Zijian He; Wenkai Zhu; Yun Zhang; Gabriella M. Schalm; Tian Li

doi:10.1007/s42765-022-00208-w

Advanced Fiber Materials ›› 2022, Vol. 5 ›› Issue (1) : 198 -208. DOI: 10.1007/s42765-022-00208-w

Research Article

Highly Stretchable Ionic and Electronic Conductive Fabric

Author information +

¹School of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, 47907, West Lafayette, USA

^h tianli@purdue.edu

Pengfei Deng

is now a graduate student in Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University. He received his bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering at Huazhong University of Science and Technology. He is interested in renewable sustainable materials and devices. His research focuses on cellulose-based materials for wearable devices in different applications.

Xuan Li

is now a PhD student in Agricultural and Biological Engineering at Purdue University. He received his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University. His current focus is on system automation for precision agriculture and plant phenotyping technologies.

Yanbin Wang

is now a postdoctoral fellow in Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University. He received his PhD at University of Maryland, College Park. His current research focuses on computational simulations, graph neural network, and drug delivery.

Zijian He

is a master’s student in Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University. He received his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University.

Wenkai Zhu

received his M.S./B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He then pursued a Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University. His research focuses on cellulose-based material innovation for energy transport applications including multiscale photonics and thermal management.

Yun Zhang

received her Ph.D. degree in condensed matter physics and nanotechnology and her M.S. degree in Thermal Engineering from Xi’an Jiaotong University. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Purdue University. Her current research focus is the heat and mass transport in sustainable materials and their interdisciplinary applications.

Gabriella Schalm

is a 4th year undergraduate student in Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University and intends to graduate in May 2023. She is interested in mechanical design and sustainable technology, and studied at ESTACA in Paris, France for a semester in 2022.

Tian Li

is currently an Assistant Professor in School of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University. She received her bachelor’s degree from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China. She obtained her PhD from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Maryland and carried out postdoctoral study in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the same university.

Show less

History +

PDF

Abstract

Wearable devices redefine the way people interact with machines. Despite the intensive effort in the design and fabrication of synthetic fibers to improve wearable device properties in terms of electronic and ionic conductivity, stretchability, comfort, and washability, challenges remain in fabricating single fiber materials that optimize all properties simultaneously. In this work, we demonstrate a highly stretchable, ionic, and electronic conductive fabric via (1) the natural nanoscale channels in fibers for effective ion transportation, (2) confining the electronic conductive material with the cellulose fibers, and (3) decoupling the property degradation of the fiber from deformation using the knitted pattern. The hierarchical structure created by cotton fibers can serve as ionic conductive channels as well as a robust multiscale scaffold to host infiltrated electronic conductive materials. Cotton strands with ionic and electronic conductivity can be knitted into fabrics that are highly stretchable (~ 300%). Moreover, high ionic and electronic conductivity are observed with 2 S/m and 5 S/m, respectively, even under a strain of 175%. With the inherent advantages of cotton fabrics such as moisture-wicking, washability, comfort, and light-weightiness for wearable applications, our approach of directly functionalized cellulose can potentially be a promising route towards highly stretchable and wearable mixed conductors.

Cite this article

Download citation ▾

Pengfei Deng, Xuan Li, Yanbin Wang, Zijian He, Wenkai Zhu, Yun Zhang, Gabriella M. Schalm, Tian Li. Highly Stretchable Ionic and Electronic Conductive Fabric. Advanced Fiber Materials, 2022, 5(1): 198-208 DOI:10.1007/s42765-022-00208-w