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University of Waterloo researchers in Waterloo, Ont., Canada, have developed a smart fabric that can convert body heat and solar energy into electricity. The fabric has the potential to replace current smart wearables that often require bulky external power sources and frequent charging.
The fabric is made from MXene, a flexible 2D graphene-like material with electric and metallic conductivity. MXene-based composites are versatile and used in applications such as physical and chemical sensors, energy storage and biomedical applications.
Researchers constructed an adhesive polydopamine layer on the fabric’s nylon surface, attaching MXene through hydrogen bonding. The resulting fabric is rapidly responsive, durable and more cost-effective than conventional fabrics used in smart fabrics. The MXene-based fabric detects the difference between the wearer’s body temperature and environment to harness body heat, converting it into electricity to discern the wearer’s respiratory rate. Other sensors can be integrated to monitor factors such as pressure, chemical composition and others.
A potential use for the fabric could be in face masks to track breath temperature and rate and detect chemicals present to identify viruses and other illnesses.
The research was conducted in collaboration with professor Chaoxia Wang, doctoral candidate Jun Peng and others from the
College of Textile Science and Engineering at Jiangnan University in Wuxi, China.
The next research phase will focus on enhancing the fabric’s performance and integrating it with electronic components in collaboration with electrical and computer engineers. Future developments may include a smartphone app to track and transmit data from the fabric to health care professionals.
The study was published in June 2024 in the Journal of Materials Science & Technology.