Printable nanowire-based materials for the seamless integration of electronic functionality into textiles

无论是通过服装、家具、床上用品还是地毯，我们一天中的绝大多数时间都与纺织品接触。将传感或能源发电等功能集成到这些纺织品中是一个不断增长的革命性领域。所谓的电子纺织品通常包括附着在织物上的刚性衬底上的设备以及外部布线，这显然是笨拙、不舒服的，并且不保留纺织品的外观或特征。在这项研究计划中，将研究能够无缝地将电子功能赋予纺织品的新材料和沉积工艺。在其他方面，材料和装置将尽可能保持纺织品的原始特性，如柔韧性、伸缩性、透气性、柔软性、颜色和图案。外部布线的首选替代方案是可印刷在织物上的导电油墨。然而，可用的油墨是僵硬的，弯曲和拉伸时会破裂，掩盖了下面纺织品的颜色和图案。在这项研究中，一种越来越受到世界范围内关注的纳米材料-银纳米线-形状为细长棒的结构，将作为商业墨水中使用的球形和片状银纳米颗粒的替代品进行测试。纳米线的更长距离将使导电路径在弯曲和拉伸下保持更好的接触。其细长的形状也将允许通过开放的网状而不是连续的薄膜来实现导电性。这将大大降低所需的金属量，导致重量更轻、机械更灵活，在较低的导电率下，甚至可以获得光学透明的导电涂层和器件。丝网中的空隙也应该允许转印，而不是目前使用的层压工艺，这将消除在油墨和织物之间的塑料层的需要。半导体纳米线还将被研究为一种可印刷的、可弯曲的纺织品半导体材料，作为刚性衬底和不稳定有机材料上半导体设备的替代品。使用这些材料，包括用于通信的隐形天线、透明触摸屏传感器和有毒气体传感器在内的设备将无缝地集成到织物中。电子纺织品在健康监测、健身跟踪、军事、汽车和物联网等领域有着越来越广泛的应用。因此，许多对加拿大重要的工业部门可以利用电子纺织技术，该计划将在这个不断增长的领域培养知识、创新和技术专家。学生将接受适用于许多领域的材料和器件设计、制造和测试方面的实践培训。本研究将为纺织品开发的导电和半导体油墨将是电子纺织技术的关键推动因素，这些油墨将是可印刷、光学透明、重量轻、可伸展和可弯曲的可靠油墨。

Whether through clothing, furniture, bedding or carpets, we are in contact with textiles the vast majority of our day. Integrating functionality such as sensing or energy generation into these textiles is a growing, revolutionary area. So called e-textiles typically involve devices on rigid substrates attached to fabric along with external cabling, which is clearly cumbersome, uncomfortable and does not retain the look or characteristics of textiles. In this research program, new materials and deposition processes will be researched that can seamlessly impart electronic functionality into textiles. The materials and devices will otherwise maintain as much of the original characteristics of a textile as possible such as flexibility, stretchability, breathability, softness, colour, and pattern. A preferred alternative to external wiring is conductive inks that can be printed on fabric. However, available inks are stiff, breakdown with bending and stretching, and mask the colour and pattern of the textile underneath. In this research, a nanomaterial receiving growing world-wide attention - silver nanowires - which are structures shaped as elongated rods, will be tested as an alternative to the spherical and flake-shaped silver nanoparticles used in commercial inks. The much longer reach of nanowires will allow conductive paths to remain in better contact under bending and stretching. Their elongated shape will also allow for conductivity to be achieved with an open mesh rather than continuous film. This will dramatically lower the amount of metal required, leading to lower-weight, more mechanically flexible and, at lower conductivities, even optically transparent conductive coatings and devices. The open spaces in the mesh should also permit transfer printing instead of currently used lamination processes, which will rid the need for a plastic layer between the ink and fabric. Semiconductor nanowires will also be researched as a printable, flexible semiconducting material for textiles as an alternative to semiconductor devices on rigid substrates and unstable organic materials. Using these materials, devices including invisible antennas for communication, transparent touchsensors, and toxic gas sensors, will be seamlessly integrated into fabrics. E-textiles have a wide and growing range of applications in areas such as health monitoring, fitness tracking, military, automotive and the internet of things. As such, many industrial sectors of importance to Canada could exploit e-textile technologies and this program will create knowledge, innovation and technical experts in this growing field. Students will receive hands-on training in materials and device design, fabrication and testing that is applicable to many fields. The conductive and semiconducting inks for textiles to be developed in this research which will be printable, optically transparent, light-weight and reliably stretchable and bendable will be key enablers for e-textile technology.