Nanotube threads help create wearable biosensing technology

Fabrics that monitor vital signs, warn of allergens or cool people with heat stroke may not be far into the future, if Nicholas Kotov, a professor of Chemical Engineering, University of Michigan, has his way. Kotov coated cotton with a mixture of carbon nanotubes and a conductive polymer, creating threads that carry enough current to make wearable biosensing technologies a reality.

Kotov decorated the carbon nanotubes with antibodies to the human blood protein albumin; the threads can detect human blood. The textiles don’t respond to bovine albumin, demonstrating how specific the sensors are to the target. Threads woven into a soldier’s uniform could alert a remote medical team that he’d been wounded through a wearable computer. Textiles incorporating antibodies could alert the wearer to allergens by illuminating an LED light or sending a cell phone message. Read more about the biosensor fibers in a December Scientific American feature at www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=carbon-nanotube-clothing.