Scalable Production of Graphene-Based Wearable E-Textiles

Karim, Nazmul; Afroj, Shaila; Tan, Sirui; He, Pei; Fernando, Anura; Carr, Chris; Novoselov, Kostya S.

Abstract

© 2017 American Chemical Society. Graphene-based wearable e-textiles are considered to be promising due to their advantages over traditional metal-based technology. However, the manufacturing process is complex and currently not suitable for industrial scale application. Here we report a simple, scalable, and cost-effective method of producing graphene-based wearable e-textiles through the chemical reduction of graphene oxide (GO) to make stable reduced graphene oxide (rGO) dispersion which can then be applied to the textile fabric using a simple pad-dry technique. This application method allows the potential manufacture of conductive graphene e-textiles at commercial production rates of ∼150 m/min. The graphene e-textile materials produced are durable and washable with acceptable softness/hand feel. The rGO coating enhanced the tensile strength of cotton fabric and also the flexibility due to the increase in strain% at maximum load. We demonstrate the potential application of these graphene e-textiles for wearable electronics with activity monitoring sensor. This could potentially lead to a multifunctional single graphene e-textile garment that can act both as sensors and flexible heating elements powered by the energy stored in graphene textile supercapacitors.

Citation

Karim, N., Afroj, S., Tan, S., He, P., Fernando, A., Carr, C., & Novoselov, K. S. (2017). Scalable Production of Graphene-Based Wearable E-Textiles. ACS Nano, 11(12), 12266-12275. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.7b05921

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 29, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Nov 29, 2017
• Publication Date: Dec 26, 2017
• Deposit Date: Dec 8, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 9, 2019
• Journal: ACS Nano
• Print ISSN: 1936-0851
• Electronic ISSN: 1936-086X
• Publisher: American Chemical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 11
• Issue: 12
• Pages: 12266-12275
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.7b05921
• Keywords: graphene; wearables; e-textiles; textile sensors; activity monitoring
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/4789567