Posted by the editor on March 03rd, 2010

Believe it or not, it is actually possible to take ordinary cotton and polyester fabrics to create batteries that are capable of retaining their flexibility. This feeds off of the emerging field of wearable electronics consisting of clothing and textiles that are developed from devices. So how is it done you may be wondering?

The idea starts by dipping fabrics in an ink of tiny tubes of carbon. The thought of this was first presented a year ago on plain copier paper and has flourished like many other forms of technology today.

Research has been in full steam with findings showing it is possible for electronics to be built on flexible and transparent surfaces. As expected, there are numerous challenges that have arisen such as developing approaches that work with ordinary fabrics.

A team at Stanford University has now shown that “ink” made of carbon nanotubes can actually act as dye to turn a t-shirt into an “e-shirt.” The general idea remains the same as that outlined with plain paper. The fibers of fabric are actually interwoven like paper and are actually suited to absorb the nanaotube ink. As a result, it is able to maintain an electrical connection across the whole area of a garment.

It really is a fairly simple process as the cloth is dipped into a batch of nanotube dye and is then pressed in order to thin and even out the coating. The fabric is then able to maintain its properties even when it is stretched or folded. What is even more impressive is the fact that rinsing the samples in water and wringing them out will not change the electronic properties.

So what is the next step you may wonder? From here they are looking to integrate the approach with materials that store more energy so that they can create more useful batteries. They have hopes of combining this approach with other electronic materials in ink to create wearable solar cells in the future.