4 research outputs found
Simple Approach to High-Performance Stretchable Heaters Based on Kirigami Patterning of Conductive Paper for Wearable Thermotherapy Applications
Recent
efforts to develop stretchable resistive heaters open up the possibility
for their use in wearable thermotherapy applications. Such heaters
should have high electrothermal performance and stability to be used
practically, and the fabrication must be simple, economic, reproducible,
and scalable. Here we present a simple yet highly efficient way of
producing high-performance stretchable heaters, which is based on
a facile kirigami pattering (the art of cutting and folding paper)
of a highly conductive paper for practical wearable thermotherapy.
The resulting kirigami heater exhibits high heating performance at
low voltage (>40 °C at 1.2 V) and fast thermal response (<60
s). The simple kirigami patterning approach enables the heater to
be extremely stretchable (>400%) while stably retaining its excellent
performance. Furthermore, the heater shows the uniform spatial distribution
of heat over the whole heating area and is highly durable (1000 cycles
at 300% strain). The heater attached to curvilinear body parts shows
stable heating performance even under large motions while maintaining
intimate conformal contact with the skin thanks to the high stretchability
and sufficient restoring force. The usability of the heater as a wearable
thermotherapy device is demonstrated by increased blood flow at the
wrist during operation
Al-Coated Conductive Fibrous Filter with Low Pressure Drop for Efficient Electrostatic Capture of Ultrafine Particulate Pollutants
Here, we demonstrate
a new strategy of air filtration based on an Al-coated conductive
fibrous filter for high efficient nanoparticulate removals. The conductive
fibrous filter was fabricated by a direct decomposition of Al precursor
ink, AlH<sub>3</sub>{OÂ(C<sub>4</sub>H<sub>9</sub>)<sub>2</sub>}, onto
surfaces of a polyester air filter via a cost-effective and scalable
solution-dipping process. The prepared conductive filters showed a
low sheet resistance (<1.0 Ω sq<sup>–1</sup>), robust
mechanical durability and high oxidative stability. By electrostatic
force between the charged fibers and particles, the ultrafine particles
of 30–400 nm in size were captured with a removal efficiency
of ∼99.99%. Moreover, the conductive filters exhibited excellent
performances in terms of the pressure drop (∼4.9 Pa at 10 cm
s<sup>–1</sup>), quality factor (∼2.2 Pa<sup>–1</sup> at 10 cm s<sup>–1</sup>), and dust holding capacity (12.5
μg mm<sup>–2</sup>). After being cleaned by water, the
filtration efficiency and pressure drop of the conductive filter was
perfectly recovered, which indicates its good recyclability. It is
expected that these promising features make the conductive fibrous
filter have a great potential for use in low-cost and energy-efficient
air cleaning devices as well as other relevant research areas
Highly Stretchable, Hysteresis-Free Ionic Liquid-Based Strain Sensor for Precise Human Motion Monitoring
A highly stretchable,
low-cost strain sensor was successfully prepared using an extremely
cost-effective ionic liquid of ethylene glycol/sodium chloride. The
hysteresis performance of the ionic-liquid-based sensor was able to
be improved by introducing a wavy-shaped fluidic channel diminishing
the hysteresis by the viscoelastic relaxation of elastomers. From
the simulations on visco-hyperelastic behavior of the elastomeric
channel, we demonstrated that the wavy structure can offer lower energy
dissipation compared to a flat structure under a given deformation.
The resistance response of the ionic-liquid-based wavy (ILBW) sensor
was fairly deterministic with no hysteresis, and it was well-matched
to the theoretically estimated curves. The ILBW sensors exhibited
a low degree of hysteresis (0.15% at 250%), low overshoot (1.7% at
150% strain), and outstanding durability (3000 cycles at 300% strain).
The ILBW sensor has excellent potential for use in precise and quantitative
strain detections in various areas, such as human motion monitoring,
healthcare, virtual reality, and smart clothes
Functional Circuitry on Commercial Fabric via Textile-Compatible Nanoscale Film Coating Process for Fibertronics
Fabric-based electronic
textiles (e-textiles) are the fundamental components of wearable electronic
systems, which can provide convenient hand-free access to computer
and electronics applications. However, e-textile technologies presently
face significant technical challenges. These challenges include difficulties
of fabrication due to the delicate nature of the materials, and limited
operating time, a consequence of the conventional normally on computing
architecture, with volatile power-hungry electronic components, and
modest battery storage. Here, we report a novel polyÂ(ethylene glycol
dimethacrylate) (pEGDMA)-textile memristive nonvolatile logic-in-memory
circuit, enabling normally off computing, that can overcome those
challenges. To form the metal electrode and resistive switching layer,
strands of cotton yarn were coated with aluminum (Al) using a solution
dip coating method, and the pEGDMA was conformally applied using an
initiated chemical vapor deposition process. The intersection of two
Al/pEGDMA coated yarns becomes a unit memristor in the lattice structure.
The pEGDMA-Textile Memristor (ETM), a form of crossbar array, was
interwoven using a grid of Al/pEGDMA coated yarns and untreated yarns.
The former were employed in the active memristor and the latter suppressed
cell-to-cell disturbance. We experimentally demonstrated for the first
time that the basic Boolean functions, including a half adder as well
as NOT, NOR, OR, AND, and NAND logic gates, are successfully implemented
with the ETM crossbar array on a fabric substrate. This research may
represent a breakthrough development for practical wearable and smart
fibertronics