skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Explore Research Products in the PAR
It may take a few hours for recently added research products to appear in PAR search results.


Title: Smart Electronic Textiles for Wearable Sensing and Display
Increasing demand of using everyday clothing in wearable sensing and display has synergistically advanced the field of electronic textiles, or e-textiles. A variety of types of e-textiles have been formed into stretchy fabrics in a manner that can maintain their intrinsic properties of stretchability, breathability, and wearability to fit comfortably across different sizes and shapes of the human body. These unique features have been leveraged to ensure accuracy in capturing physical, chemical, and electrophysiological signals from the skin under ambulatory conditions, while also displaying the sensing data or other immediate information in daily life. Here, we review the emerging trends and recent advances in e-textiles in wearable sensing and display, with a focus on their materials, constructions, and implementations. We also describe perspectives on the remaining challenges of e-textiles to guide future research directions toward wider adoption in practice.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2032529
PAR ID:
10391788
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Biosensors
Volume:
12
Issue:
4
ISSN:
2079-6374
Page Range / eLocation ID:
222
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; et al (, Small)
    Abstract Electronic textiles (e‐textiles) that combine the wearing comfort of textiles and the functionality of soft electronics are highly demanded in wearable applications. However, fabricating robust high‐performance stretchable e‐textiles with good abrasion resistance and high‐resolution aesthetic patterns for high‐throughput manufacturing and practical applications remains challenging. Herein, the authors report a new multifunctional e‐textile fabricated via screen printing of the water‐based silver fractal dendrites conductive ink. The as‐fabricated e‐textiles spray‐coated with the invisible waterproofing agent exhibit superior flexibility, water resistance, wearing comfort, air permeability, and abrasion resistance, achieving a low sheet resistance of 0.088 Ω sq−1, high stretchability of up to 154%, and excellent dynamic stability for over 1000 cyclic testing (ε = 100%). The printed e‐textiles can be explored as strain sensors and ultralow voltage‐driven Joule heaters driven for personalized thermal management. They finally demonstrate an integrated aesthetic smart clothing made of their multifunctional e‐textiles for human motion detection and body‐temperature management. The printed e‐textiles provide new opportunities for developing novel wearable electronics and smart clothing for future commercial applications. 
    more » « less
  2. ; ; ; ; ; (, Journal of Applied Polymer Science)
    Abstract Smart textiles are currently being pursued for actuation and sensing for their potential to directly incorporate “intelligence” into the fabric, in contrast to wearable technologies. In smart textiles, smart materials (e.g., piezoelectric) are formed into yarns that are woven into fabrics for clothing. One immediate requirement for such textiles is their stability during washing cycles, as expected of any clothing items, which has been largely lacking so far. Here, we investigate the washing stability of nanofibrous piezoelectric textiles. Our results reveal that electrospun textiles exhibit remarkable structural stability from the fiber microstructure to the textile level. Overall fiber crystalline composition and electroactive phase remain stable within 1% of ~47% and ~85%, respectively. Mechanically, the textile displays sustained performance, with only negligible changes observed. The yield strain and stress only show a ~8% and 9% differences, respectively. Moreover, piezoelectric stability is confirmed through phase preservation and slight variation in voltage output of ~6%. These results prove the candidacy that the processing of electrospun polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) fibers to woven textiles is applicable to the demands of smart textiles, which is expected to accelerate the commercialization of such textiles for wearable robotics and health monitoring. 
    more » « less
  3. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; et al (, Advanced Materials)
    Abstract Increasing demand for wearable healthcare synergistically advances the field of electronic textiles, or e‐textiles, allowing for ambulatory monitoring of vital health signals. Despite great promise, the pragmatic deployment of e‐textiles in clinical practice remains challenged due to the lack of a method in producing custom‐designed e‐textiles at high spatial resolution across a large area. To this end, a programmable dual‐regime spray that enables the direct custom writing of functional nanoparticles into arbitrary fabrics at sub‐millimeter resolution over meter scale is employed. The resulting e‐textiles retain the intrinsic fabric properties in terms of mechanical flexibility, water‐vapor permeability, and comfort against multiple uses and laundry cycles. The e‐textiles tightly fit various body sizes and shapes to support the high‐fidelity recording of physiological and electrophysiological signals on the skin under ambulatory conditions. Pilot field tests in a remote health‐monitoring setting with a large animal, such as a horse, demonstrate the scalability and utility of the e‐textiles beyond conventional devices. This approach will be suitable for the rapid prototyping of custom e‐textiles tailored to meet various clinical needs. 
    more » « less
  4. ; ; ; ; ; ; (, Materials)
    null (Ed.)
    Standards for the fatigue testing of wearable sensing technologies are lacking. The majority of published fatigue tests for wearable sensors are performed on proof-of-concept stretch sensors fabricated from a variety of materials. Due to their flexibility and stretchability, polymers are often used in the fabrication of wearable sensors. Other materials, including textiles, carbon nanotubes, graphene, and conductive metals or inks, may be used in conjunction with polymers to fabricate wearable sensors. Depending on the combination of the materials used, the fatigue behaviors of wearable sensors can vary. Additionally, fatigue testing methodologies for the sensors also vary, with most tests focusing only on the low-cycle fatigue (LCF) regime, and few sensors are cycled until failure or runout are achieved. Fatigue life predictions of wearable sensors are also lacking. These issues make direct comparisons of wearable sensors difficult. To facilitate direct comparisons of wearable sensors and to move proof-of-concept sensors from “bench to bedside”, fatigue testing standards should be established. Further, both high-cycle fatigue (HCF) and failure data are needed to determine the appropriateness in the use, modification, development, and validation of fatigue life prediction models and to further the understanding of how cracks initiate and propagate in wearable sensing technologies. 
    more » « less
  5. ; ; (, Micromachines)
    Future wearable electronics and smart textiles face a major challenge in the development of energy storage devices that are high-performing while still being flexible, lightweight, and safe. Fiber supercapacitors are one of the most promising energy storage technologies for such applications due to their excellent electrochemical characteristics and mechanical flexibility. Over the past decade, researchers have put in tremendous effort and made significant progress on fiber supercapacitors. It is now the time to assess the outcomes to ensure that this kind of energy storage device will be practical for future wearable electronics and smart textiles. While the materials, fabrication methods, and energy storage performance of fiber supercapacitors have been summarized and evaluated in many previous publications, this review paper focuses on two practical questions: Are the reported devices providing sufficient energy and power densities to wearable electronics? Are the reported devices flexible and durable enough to be integrated into smart textiles? To answer the first question, we not only review the electrochemical performance of the reported fiber supercapacitors but also compare them to the power needs of a variety of commercial electronics. To answer the second question, we review the general approaches to assess the flexibility of wearable textiles and suggest standard methods to evaluate the mechanical flexibility and stability of fiber supercapacitors for future studies. Lastly, this article summarizes the challenges for the practical application of fiber supercapacitors and proposes possible solutions. 
    more » « less
  • Citation Formats
  • MLA
  • APA
  • Chicago
  • BibTeX
  • Save / Share this Record
  • Send to Email