Multifunctional Electronic Textiles by Direct 3D Printing of Stretchable Conductive Fibers

Wang, Yuntian1; Wang, Zhixun2; Wang, Zhe2; Xiong, Ting2; Shum, Perry Ping1; Wei, Lei2

2023-03-01

10.1002/aelm.202201194

Advanced Electronic Materials   Impact Factor & Quartile

2199-160X

The integration of functional fibers into wearable devices by traditional methods is commonly completed in weaving. A new post-weaving method of integrating fiber devices into textiles is needed to address the challenge of incorporating functional fiber into ready-made garments without tearing down the clothing and re-weaving. A 3D printing method to simultaneously fabricate and integrate highly stretchable conductive fiber into ready-made garments with designed patterns is presented. The fabricated sheath-core fiber consists of a styrene-ethylene-butylene-styrene (SEBS) shell and a Ga-In-Sn alloy liquid metal core. The SEBS shell guarantees the high stretchability (up to 600%) and flexibility, while the liquid metal core offers a high conductivity maintained at large deformation. It is shown that sophisticated patterns, which have millimeter-level-resolution that are difficult to be integrated into textiles by weaving, and even more laborious to be incorporated into ready-made garments, can now be easily modified and implemented into both textiles and ready-made garments by a time-saving and low-cost 3D printing method. Utilizing the electrical characteristics of the fiber in pre-designed patterns, on-clothing soft electronics can be printed directly. A printed on-clothing strain sensor, bending sensor, wireless charging coil, and a touch-sensing network are demonstrated to show the potential applications in wearable electronics.

3D printing additive manufacturing electronic textiles sensors soft electronics wireless charging

SCI

English

First ; Corresponding

Singapore Ministry of Education Academic Research Fund Tier 2["MOE2019-T2-2-127","MOE-T2EP50120-0002"] ; Singapore Ministry of Education Academic Research Fund Tier 1[RG62/22] ; A*STAR under AME IRG[A2083c0062] ; A*STAR under its IAF-ICP Programme[I2001E0067]

Science & Technology - Other Topics ; Materials Science ; Physics

Nanoscience & Nanotechnology ; Materials Science, Multidisciplinary ; Physics, Applied

WOS:000945733900001

WILEY

Web of Science

1.Southern Univ Sci & Technol, Dept Elect & Elect Engn, Shenzhen 518055, Peoples R China
2.Nanyang Technol Univ, Sch Elect & Elect Engn, Singapore 639798, Singapore

Wang, Yuntian,Wang, Zhixun,Wang, Zhe,et al. Multifunctional Electronic Textiles by Direct 3D Printing of Stretchable Conductive Fibers[J]. Advanced Electronic Materials,2023.

Wang, Yuntian,Wang, Zhixun,Wang, Zhe,Xiong, Ting,Shum, Perry Ping,&Wei, Lei.(2023).Multifunctional Electronic Textiles by Direct 3D Printing of Stretchable Conductive Fibers.Advanced Electronic Materials.

Wang, Yuntian,et al."Multifunctional Electronic Textiles by Direct 3D Printing of Stretchable Conductive Fibers".Advanced Electronic Materials (2023).