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Don’t Forget to Charge Your Phone with Your…Sweater?!?

A sweater that powers electronics could soon become reality, thanks to a research group led by Chalmers University of Technology. Watch this video to see the team’s ordinary silk thread, coated with a conductive plastic material, that shows promise for turning textiles into electricity generators.

“We found the missing piece of the puzzle to make an optimal thread – a type of polymer that had recently been discovered. It has outstanding performance stability in contact with air, while at the same time having a very good ability to conduct electricity. By using polymers, we don't need any rare earth metals, which are common in electronics," says Mariavittoria Craighero  , doctoral student at the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Chalmers University of Technology.

Topics:
Batteries Electrification Electronics Energy Materials Polymers Power

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    Transcript

    00:00:00 So here we have a thermoelectric generator that is basically a device that is able to convert temperature difference into electrical power. And specifically this one is a thermoelectric generator that can be used in our clothes. So it's able to convert the temperature difference in between our body and the surrounding environment into electrical power. And this can be connected to some sensors that can be integrated in our textiles. It can be a healthcare sensor that can sensor or monitor our health signals. Our heartbeat, pressure or so on.

    00:00:45 My name is Mariavittoria Craighero and I am a PhD student here at the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Chalmers University of Technology. When I was in the high school, I always liked subjects like maths or chemistry or physics. I have this kind of rational and logic mindset. And I think those subjects for me were kind of easy compared to other subjects in the highschool. So I decided to go on in that area, the science area. So I decided to join

    00:01:25 the materials engineering university course. And so I decided to do my master's thesis project, this big project during six months, on this subject. So I just contacted a few professors around Europe and at the end I ended up here in Chalmers, at chemistry in the chemistry department. And then after that, I just continued with the PhD. So here I am. You know, we use textiles every day. And the idea of having textiles

    00:02:01 and clothes, that we can wear with different functionalities, so just not to cover us and to keep us warm, is a very cool idea. Our device in particular is a generator, so it’s able to produce electricity and power to then power another device or another sensor. So one common use can be to be connected to a sensor that can, for example, monitor our heartbeats or for example, I don't know, to a GPS. Or for example, they can be useful in textiles, for example, for clothes for workers

    00:02:44 that work in dangerous places, like fireworkers and so on. So to continuously monitor their health signals to see if they are safe or not. We work with organic materials that basically are carbon based materials. And specifically we work with polymers. Polymers are usually known as plastic. But we use a special family of polymers. Because when you think about polymers,

    00:03:18 you think they are insulating so they cannot conduct electricity. But what the polymers that we are using, and we work with, are able to conduct electricity if they are treated in a certain way. Also the good part is that they are also carbon based. So they don't contain any rare metals. So they are made of the most abundant elements in the nature. And basically we use this silk yarn that we then coat with our conductive ink that is this conducting polymer. And we got these fibers, and these are conductive.

    00:03:59 Then we use them to sew and to hand stitch manually, hand stitch, the device. And we started by practicing our sewing skills by doing competitions on who would sew the button in a better way. I had some experience thanks to my grandmother, because during summer I was spending time with her. So then she taught how to sew, but still, like, you know, it’s a bit different. So it was like a lot of practicing.

    00:04:33 And this was also the fun part of this project because we could also do, like sewing that is something that you don't do in the lab. So it was fun. So this project was part of a collaboration with Linköping University A PhD student from Linköping University came here in Chalmers to visit us. And we worked together also with Shuichi, a researcher in our group. The main challenge was the air stability. Because, you know, if we in the future,

    00:05:10 we would like to use these devices in our textiles they need to be stable in air. Because we live in a normal atmosphere, so they don't need the they cannot be sensitive to oxygen or humidity or moisture. So they need to keep their performance for a long term. This was not possible before but now with these these fibers, these yarns that we produced, they are very stable. So they can keep their performance for a long time.

    00:05:51 We find challenges every day, especially in the lab, in this project in particular, you know, you try to make something and the yarns were like, just sticking together, so it was impossible to use them. So we had these kind of challenges. I think if, like these yarns, with this material, they will, they might reach the stage where we can really find them in the stores because they are applied in our textiles. I mean, this will be very... I will be very grateful because, I mean, I did some research on it, and,

    00:06:34 if this can just contribute very little to someone, to the life of someone, it will be, I mean, I will be very happy to contribute to that. And then we move. We decided to prepare a bigger, device, a bigger prototype. So we make, these basic, design and and basically this took, like, almost, four days of, work to hand stitch, this, these small one. It takes a while to make it.

    00:16:40 And also a lot of polymer, of course, because these polymers are also not commercially available yet. What we wanted to prove was mostly that this device is, it doesn't lose its properties and performance over time. The main challenge was the idea stability. And, because, you know, if we in the future, we would like to use these, devices in our textiles. They need to be stable in air because we live in normal atmosphere. So they don't need the they cannot be sensitive to oxygen or, humidity or moisture.

    00:17:18 So they need to keep their performance for long term. In this project, we also, study the wish ability of these yarns. And actually, the the yarns were still working. If there are seven cycles of, washing in, normal, washing machine at all. What improvements needs to be to be done before, this could be actually be integrated in, in our textile, because, these materials, they don't contain any, toxic elements and secure substances, but we don't know if, it's good to be in contact for a long time with our skin, for example.

    00:18:03 So this project was part of a collaboration with Shopping University. And, now, this student from the university came here in, Chalmers to visit us. And, we work together and also with the Sweezy, researcher in, in our group. And the funniest part was to practice our, doing capabilities. And, I would say also thanks to advice of my grandmother, who we could like a, a button or hand stitch the generator. So that was the funniest thing. But. I, like Sweden is a very nice place to live.