A Study of Electric Field-Assisted Direct Ink Writing with Conducting Polymers for Electronic Textiles (E-textiles)

该基金支持的研究贡献了与电子纺织品制造过程相关的新知识，促进了科学进步，促进了国家繁荣，并有可能确保国防安全。电子纺织品或电子纺织品是可以导电的织物。电子纺织品使智能系统能够感应、加热、照明或传输数据。电子纺织品的应用包括用于运动和健身的肌肉活动监测，用于消费者或军事的数据传输，用于太空探索的传感，甚至用于医疗的病原体检测。制造电子纺织品最常见的方法是首先制造导电长丝，然后将长丝编织成织物。另一种常见的电子纺织品制造方法是首先制造具有所需几何形状的导电薄膜和带材，然后使用粘合剂或热压将其层压在织物上。尽管最近取得了进展，但这些现有的制造过程涉及多个步骤和平台，因此通常繁琐，缓慢，分辨率和几何复杂性有限。该奖项支持基础研究，为开发快速电子纺织品制造技术提供所需的知识，该技术可直接在织物和纺织品上打印高导电油墨。该项目支持努力建立美国在智能纺织品制造的国际领导地位。该项目通过吸引和培训从K-12到研究生的各级学生，并鼓励他们参与，满足了教育需求，特别是芝加哥地区和其他地方代表性不足的少数群体的教育需求。该项目的目的是了解使用电场辅助直接墨水书写（eDIW）工艺在非导电纺织品（如布）上印刷导电聚合物油墨的关键物理和机制。测试了三个假设：(1)eDIW中的电极配置产生库仑力，影响沿z轴的油墨挤出轮廓和基材上的油墨润湿（xy平面），从而使导电聚合物在粗糙织物上的打印速度更快，分辨率更高；(2)该工艺在具有独特形态的纺织品上制造导电痕迹和电路，其特征是高度分支和相互连接的网络；(3)这种独特的形态提高了印刷电子纺织品的平面内导电性。进行理论建模和实验，以建立对eDIW制造系统，工艺和印刷痕迹的导电机制的全面理解。在电流体力学、材料科学、机器设计和制造领域的交叉领域产生了新的知识，推动了直接印刷和电子纺织技术的巨大飞跃。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This grant supports research that contributes new knowledge related to an electronic textile manufacturing process, promoting the progress of science, advancing national prosperity, and potentially securing the national defense. Electronic textiles or e-textiles are fabrics that can conduct electricity. E-textiles enable smart systems that are capable of sensing, heating, lighting, or transmitting data. E-textile applications include muscular activity monitoring for sports and fitness, data transmission for consumers or military, sensing for space exploration, and even pathogen detection for medical treatments. The most common approach for fabricating e-textiles is to first fabricate conductive filaments and then knit or weave the filaments into fabrics. Another common e-textile manufacturing approach is to first fabricate conductive films and strips with desired geometries, and then laminate them on fabrics using adhesives or hot pressing. Despite recent advances, these existing manufacturing processes involve multiple steps and platforms, thus are usually tedious, slow, and have limited resolution and geometric complexity. This award supports fundamental research to provide the needed knowledge for developing a rapid e-textile manufacturing technology which directly prints highly conducting inks on fabric and textile. This project supports efforts to establish United States international leadership in smart textile manufacturing. The project meets the educational needs, especially, of under-represented minority groups in the Chicago area and elsewhere, by engaging and training students from all levels, K-12 to graduate, and encouraging their participation.The objective of this project is to understand the critical physics and mechanisms for printing conducting polymer inks on non-conducting textiles, such as cloth, using an electric field-assisted Direct Ink Writing (eDIW) process. Three hypotheses are tested: (1) the electrode configuration in eDIW generates a Coulomb force that affects the ink extrusion profile along the z-axis and also the ink wetting on the substrate (xy plane), allowing faster and micron-scale resolution printing of conducting polymers on rough fabrics; (2) the process fabricates conducting traces and circuits on textiles with a unique morphology, which is characterized by highly-branched and interconnected networks; and (3) such unique morphology enhances in-plane electrical conductivity of the printed e-textile. Both theoretical modeling and experiments are performed to establish a comprehensive understanding of the eDIW manufacturing system, process, and the electrical conduction mechanism of the printed traces. New knowledge is generated at the intersection of electrohydrodynamics, materials science, machine design, and manufacturing fields, advancing a huge leap in direct printing and e-textile technologies.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.