I-Corps: Highly Conductive and Additive-free Aqueous MXene Inks for Smart Textile Applications

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The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of new inks for the electronic textile market. State-of-the-art conductive ink systems have complex chemistries. The proposed inks for smart textile applications address the environmental concerns, eliminate the pre- and post-treatment costs, and have better performance. This can be used for applications such as wearable sensors, antennas, and RFID tags.This I-Corps project is based on the development of conductive and additive-free aqueous MXene inks that may be used as a dye to transform commercial yarns/fabrics into functional devices or as an ink for inkjet/screen printing devices directly on garments or soft surfaces. The proposed MXene ink formulation, which consists of only two-dimensional MXene sheets dispersed in water, may potentially solve the environmental and health concerns related to the use of other organic substances usually used as solvent in the preparation of conductive inks. Also, owing to seamless integration of MXene inks, the mechanical properties of the yarns and fabrics do not need to be modified after coating. Therefore, the resulting conductive yarns or devices are comfortable and safe to wear. Preliminary investigations have shown that the produced MXene-based yarns/fabrics may solve the manufacturability and washability problem of the conventional conductive yarns/fabrics while enabling seamless integration into textile-based devices. These issues have prevented translation of smart textiles despite their tremendous promise as a platform technology for functional devices.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.