"The fibers, no different from spinning threads, are instantly lit up when they come into contact with water like a dragonfly touching water. "The research team of Donghua University has successfully developed a smart fiber that can generate light and electricity without chips and batteries. This major research result has not only been published in the top international academic journal Science, but is also considered to be expected to change the way people interact with the environment and between people, and has a wide range of application prospects.
Because of their better breathability and softness, e-textiles woven from smart fibers are seen as ideal carriers for wearable devices. However, existing electronic fabrics are often based on the "von Neumann architecture" to build different functional fiber components, and then integrate them with chips, which often brings various problems in terms of wearing comfort, seamless integration and battery life.
Based on the energy interaction mechanism of "human body coupling", the Advanced Functional Materials Research Group of the School of Materials Science and Engineering of Donghua University has pioneered the development of a new type of intelligent fiber with "non-von Neumann architecture", which realizes the integration of energy harvesting, information perception and transmission and other functions in a single fiber, and the textiles woven from this fiber can realize light-emitting display, touch and other human-computer interaction functions without relying on chips and batteries. This can not only simplify the hardware structure, but also enable smart textiles to get rid of the shackles of traditional batteries and chips and achieve true wireless intelligence.
It turns out that it cleverly uses the electromagnetic energy in the environment as a wireless driving force, and then transmits these energies to the fibers through the conductor of the "human body", which promotes the energy interaction of "human body coupling". When a specific functional material is added, the new fiber is gently touched by the hand, and the "magic scene" of light and power generation will appear.
According to reports, this new fiber has a three-layer sheath core structure, the inner layer is a fiber antenna (silver-plated nylon fiber) that induces alternating electromagnetic fields, the middle layer is a dielectric layer (BaTiO3 composite resin) that improves the electromagnetic energy coupling capacity, and the outer layer is an electric field-sensitive light-emitting layer (ZnS composite resin). These raw materials are common in the market, low cost, and the processing of fibers and fabrics can be ready for mass production using mature processes.
The birth of this new fiber not only provides a new design space for smart textiles, but also helps to promote the widespread use of electronic products in daily life. The research team said that it can be used in clothing, cloth decoration and other daily textiles, in contact with the human body, it can achieve visual sensing, interaction and even highlight lighting through luminescence, more striking is that these fibers can recognize different actions and postures of the human body, so as to generate specific wireless signals, to achieve wireless remote control of electronic products such as smart home appliances. This means we are one step closer to a smarter, more connected way of life.
Source: Donghua University
Written by: Cheng Qinghui
Editor: Li Bingqian
Editor-in-charge: Gao Qin
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