Functional electronic textiles for light emitting and colour changing applications

智能织物，或电子纺织品（e-纺织品），涉及到在标准纺织品上添加电子功能。纺织品是一种无处不在的材料，有多种形式，应用范围广泛，从服装到技术纺织品，应用于创意产业和医药等领域。本提案通过研究电子功能油墨和使用喷涂、喷墨和丝网印刷，解决了在纺织品上制造发光薄膜及其在纺织品显示和变色织物上的应用。由于其粗糙的表面拓扑结构，孔隙率和加工温度的限制，纺织品对设备印刷的基材要求很高。实现合适的功能材料以及可靠、一致的制造工艺将对纺织、服装和创意产业产生巨大影响。通过选择性照明和颜色变化来控制纺织品外观的能力将产生电子纺织品能力的阶梯式变化，从而增加价值、功能和产品差异化。特别是，该研究计划将研究在可见光和紫外线波长下工作的纺织有机发光电化学电池（OLECs）的制造。olec具有在空气中电化学稳定的优点，需要低开启电压（~3V），并具有高亮度水平（>800 cd/m2），使其在日常照明中清晰可见。OLEC结构只需要一个单一的功能层，与OLED相比，这使得它的制造相对简单。选择性发射不同波长的光的能力将使电子纺织品的性能发生阶梯式的变化。可见波长OLECs可用于在纺织品上产生可变、可控的发光图案，可用于高能见度服装或时尚应用。UV波长olec将使纺织品能够进行紫外线杀菌照射（UVGI），这是一种使用222或254 nm短波长的UVC光的消毒方法。基于纺织品的UVGI可以整合到医疗应用中，例如智能绷带，以治疗/预防感染并减少对抗生素的依赖。UV-OLECs还可以与额外的印刷光致变色层相结合，以实现非发光变色纺织品。当暴露在紫外线下时，光致变色材料从透明变为不透明，这可以产生显着的颜色变化。这种方法可以在不发光或不需要连续切换OLEC的情况下控制纺织品外观。研究将包括定制设计的增强有机分子的配方，与目前的技术水平相比，增强了发射效率。这些将被配制成可打印的材料，并与可打印的导电材料相结合。器件结构和制造工艺（喷涂、喷墨和丝网印刷）也将被探讨。这项研究将解决关键的加工挑战，以便在纺织品上实现可靠和坚固的薄膜和设备。

Smart fabrics, or electronic-textiles (e-textiles), concern the addition of electronic functionality to standard textiles. Textiles are a ubiquitous material available in many forms and used in a huge range of applications from clothing to technical textiles that are applied in, for example, creative industries and medicine. This proposal addresses the fabrication of light emitting films on textiles and their application to achieve textile displays and colour-changing fabrics through research into electronically functional inks and using spray coating, inkjet and screen printing. Textiles are demanding substrates for device printing due to their rough surface topology, porosity and the constraints they impose on processing temperatures. The achievement of suitable functional materials along with reliable, consistent fabrication processes will have a huge impact in the textile, garment and creative industries. The ability to control the appearance of textiles through selective illumination and colour change will produce a step change in e-textile capability that will add value, function and product differentiation. In particular, this programme of research will investigate the fabrication of textile organic light emitting electrochemical cells (OLECs) operating at visible and UV wavelengths. OLECs have the attractions of being electrochemically stable in air, require a low turn on voltage (~3V) and demonstrate a high luminance level (>800 cd/m2) allowing them to be clearly visible in everyday lighting. The OLEC structure requires only a single functional layer which makes it relatively straightforward to fabricate compared to, for example, OLED's. The ability to selectively emit different wavelengths of light will produce a step change in e-textile capability. Visible wavelength OLECs can be used to produce variable, controllable, light emitting patterns on the textile, which can be used in high visibility clothing or fashion applications. UV wavelength OLECs will enable a textile to perform ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI), which is a disinfection method that uses short wavelength UVC light at 222 or 254 nm. Textile based UVGI can be incorporated into medical applications such as smart bandages to treat/prevent infection and reduce reliance on antibiotics. UV-OLECs can also be combined with additional printed photochromic layers to realise non-light emitting colour changing textiles. When exposed to UV light, photochromic materials change from transparent to opaque and this can produce significant changes in colour. This approach can control the textile appearance without emitting light or requiring the OLEC to be continuously switched onThe research will include the formulation of custom designed enhanced organic molecules with enhanced emission efficiency compared to the state of the art. These will be formulated into printable materials and combined with printable conductive materials. Device architectures and fabrication processes (spray coating, inkjet and screen printing) will also be explored. The research will address the key processing challenges in order to realise reliable and robust thin films and devices on textiles.