Search Results (34)

Printed electronics employ established printing methods to create low-cost, mechanically flexible devices including batteries, supercapacitors, sensors, antennas and RFID tags on plastic, paper and textile substrates. This review focuses on the specific contribution of screen printing to that landscape, examining how ink viscosity, mesh selection and squeegee dynamics govern film uniformity, pattern resolution and ultimately device performance. Recent progress in advanced ink systems is surveyed, highlighting carbon allotropes (graphene, carbon nano-onions, carbon nanotubes, graphite), silver and copper nanostructures, MXene and functional oxides that collectively enhance mechanical robustness, electrical conductivity and radio-frequency behavior. Parallel improvements in substrate engineering such as polyimide, PET, TPU, cellulose and elastomers demonstrate the technique’s capacity to accommodate complex geometries for wearable, medical and industrial applications while supporting environmentally responsible material choices such as water-borne binders and bio-based solvents. By mapping two decades of developments across energy-storage layers and functional electronics, the article identifies the key process elements, recurring challenges and emerging sustainable practices that will guide future optimization of screen-printing materials and protocols for high-performance, customizable and eco-friendly flexible devices. Full article

The interest in flexible and wearable electronics is increasing in both scientific research and in multiple industry sectors, such as medicine and healthcare, sports, and fashion. Thus, compatible power sources are needed to develop secondary batteries, fuel cells, supercapacitors, sensors, and dye-sensitized solar cells. Traditional liquid electrolytes pose challenges in the development of textile-based electronics due to their potential for leakage, flammability, and limited flexibility. On the other hand, gel electrolytes offer solutions to these issues, making them suitable choices for these applications. There are several advantages to using gel electrolytes in textile-based electronics, namely higher safety, leak resistance, mechanical flexibility, improved interface compatibility, higher energy density, customizable properties, scalability, and easy integration into manufacturing processes. However, it is also essential to consider some challenges associated with these gels, such as lower conductivity and long-term stability. This review highlights the application of gel electrolytes to textile materials in various forms (e.g., fibers, yarns, woven, knit, and non-woven), along with the strategies for their integration and their resulting properties. While challenges remain in optimizing key parameters, the integration of gel electrolytes into textiles holds immense potential to enhance conductivity, flexibility, and energy storage, paving the way for advanced electronic textiles. Full article

The rapid developments in conductive polymers with flexible electronics over the past years have generated noteworthy attention among researchers and entrepreneurs. Conductive polymers have the distinctive capacity to conduct electricity while still maintaining the lightweight, flexible, and versatile characteristics of polymers. They are crucial for the creation of flexible electronics or gadgets that can stretch, bend, and adapt to different surfaces have sparked momentous interest in electronics, energy storage, sensors, smart textiles, and biomedical applications. This review article offers a comprehensive overview of recent advancements in conductive polymers over the last 15 years, including a bibliometric analysis. The properties of conductive polymers are summarized. Additionally, the fabrication processes of conductive polymer-based materials are discussed, including vacuum filtering, hydrothermal synthesis, spray coating, electrospinning, in situ polymerization, and electrochemical polymerization. The techniques have been presented along with their advantages and limitations. The multifunctional applications of conductive polymers are also discussed, including their roles in energy storage and conversion (e.g., supercapacitors, lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), and sodium-ion batteries (SIBs)), as well as in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), organic solar cells (OSCs), conductive textiles, healthcare monitoring, and sensors. Future scope and associated challenges have also been mentioned for further development in this field. Full article

Antimony (Sb) has gained significance as a critical raw material (CRM) within the European Union (EU) due to its strategic importance in various industrial sectors, particularly in the textile industry for flame retardants and as a component of Sb-based semiconductor materials. Moreover, Sb is emerging as a potential alternative for anodes used in lithium-ion batteries, a key element in the energy transition. This study explored the feasibility of identifying and quantifying Sb mineralisations through the spectral signature of soils using laboratory reflectance spectroscopy, a non-invasive remote sensing technique, and by employing convolutional neural networks (CNNs). Standard signal pre-processing techniques were applied to the spectral data, and the soils were analysed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Despite achieving high R-squared (0.7) values and an RMSE of 173 ppm for Sb, the study faces a significant challenge of generalisation of the model to new data. Despite the limitations, this study provides valuable insights into potential strategies for future research in this field. Full article

Printed textile-based flexible batteries are gaining attention in several applications, but they are becoming more relevant to the health care industry in terms of realizing wearable and skin-conformable electronic devices. A flexible battery must ideally be deformable along multiple directions. In this work, with an aim to develop a fully printed omnidirectional deformable battery, we report the fabrication process of a novel single-polymer-based flexible non-rechargeable planar Ag₂O-Zn battery on a textile substrate using the stencil printing method. Except for the electrolyte, all the components of the battery, including the current collectors, the anode, the cathode, and the separator membrane, are fabricated using a single polymer, namely styrene–ethylene–butylene–styrene (SEBS). To fabricate the SEBS separator, we introduce the solvent evaporation-induced phase separation (SEIPS) process. In the SEIPS method, toluene and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) are selected as the solvent–nonsolvent pair. The SEBS: toluene: DMSO system with a wt% ratio of 6:85:9 showed improved performance regarding the OCV tests. A polyacrylic acid (PAA)-based alkaline polymer gel is used as an electrolyte. The demonstrated process is simple, and, with suitable modifications, it should find its use in the development of digitally printed alkaline batteries. Full article

Textiles are often used to protect people from cold environments. While most garments are designed for temperatures not far below 0 °C, very cold regions on the earth near the poles or on mountains necessitate special clothing. The same is true for homeless people who have few possibilities to warm up or workers in cooling chambers and other cold environments. Passive insulating clothing, however, can only retain body heat. Active heating, on the other hand, necessitates energy, e.g., by batteries, which are usually relatively heavy and have to be recharged regularly. This review gives an overview of energy-self-sufficient textile solutions for cold environments, including energy harvesting by textile-based or textile-integrated solar cells; piezoelectric sensors in shoes and other possibilities; energy storage in supercapacitors or batteries; and heating by electric energy or phase-change materials. Full article

This work reports an encapsulated and flexible solid-state AIC screen printed on top of a polyester–cotton textile. The proposed zinc-ion capacitor (ZIC) arrays were fabricated on top of a polymer-coated polyester–cotton textile with solution-based processes and inexpensive electrodes and electrolyte materials. This battery achieved an energy density of 0.47 μWh·cm⁻² (per device area) or 0.51 mWh·cm⁻² (per active material area) in a galvanostatic cycling test between 0.1 V and 1.8 V. Full article

Textiles composed of fibers can have their mechanical properties adjusted by changing the arrangement of the fibers, such as strength and flexibility. Particularly, in the case of smart textiles incorporating active materials, various deformations could be created based on fiber patterns that determine the directivity of active materials. In this study, we design a smart fiber-based textile actuator with a chain structure and evaluate its actuation characteristics. Smart fiber composed of shape memory alloy (SMA) generates deformation when the electric current is applied, causing the phase transformation of SMA. We fabricated the smart chain column and evaluated its actuating mechanism based on the size of the chain and the number of rows. In addition, a crochet textile actuator was designed using interlooping smart chains and developed into a soft gripper that can grab objects. With experimental verifications, this study provides an investigation of the relationship between the chain actuator’s deformation, actuating force, actuator temperature, and strain. The results of this study are expected to be relevant to textile applications, wearable devices, and other technical fields that require coordination with the human body. Additionally, it is expected that it can be utilized to configure a system capable of flexible operation by combining rigid elements such as batteries and sensors with textiles. Full article

Fiber reinforced plastics (FRP) offer huge potentials for energy efficient applications. Special care must be taken during both FRP fabrication and usage to ensure intended material properties and behavior. This paper presents a novel approach for the monitoring of the strain and temperature of glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) materials in the context of both production process monitoring and structural health monitoring (SHM) applications. The sensor is designed to be integrated into GFRPs during the production process, and the sensor concept includes possibilities of automated placement during textile layup. To minimize sensor impact on GFRP integrity and to simplify vacuum setup and part handling, the sensor operates without the need for either wires or a battery. In the first sections of this work, sensor concept, design and prototype fabrication are presented. Subsequently, it is shown how the sensors can be used for flow front monitoring and cure estimation during GFRP production by measuring local resin temperature. The resulting specimens are then characterized regarding strain measurement capabilities, mechanical influence on the host component and overall system limitations. Average strain sensor accuracy is found to be ≤0.06 mm/m, while a maximum operation temperature of 126.9 °C and a maximum reading distance of 38 mm are measured. Based on a limited number of bending tests, no negative influence of sensor presence on breaking strength could be found. Possible applications include structural components, e.g., wind turbine blades or boat hulls. Full article

This work presents a simple, scalable and flexible zinc-ion secondary battery, fabricated on top of a textile substrate via standard fabrication processes. The proposed zinc-ion battery was fabricated on top of a polyester-cotton textile using solution-based processes and inexpensive cathode, anode and electrolyte materials. This battery achieved an area capacity of 19.1 µAh·cm⁻² between 1.9 and 0.9 V. Full article

With the triboelectric nanogenerator developing in recent years, it has gradually become a promising alternative to fossil energy and batteries. Its rapid advancements also promote the combination of triboelectric nanogenerators and textiles. However, the limited stretchability of fabric-based triboelectric nanogenerators hindered their development in wearable electronic devices. Here, in combination with the polyamide (PA) conductive yarn, polyester multifilament, and polyurethane yarn, a highly stretchable woven fabric-based triboelectric nanogenerator (SWF-TENG) with the three elementary weaves is developed. Different from the normal woven fabric without elasticity, the loom tension of the elastic warp yarn is much larger than non-elastic warp yarn in the weaving process, which results in the high elasticity of the woven fabric coming from the loom. Based on the unique and creative woven method, SWF-TENGs are qualified with excellent stretchability (up to 300%), flexibility, comfortability, and excellent mechanical stability. It also exhibits good sensitivity and fast responsibility to the external tensile strain, which can be used as a bend–stretch sensor to detect and identify human gait. Its collected power under pressure mode is capable of lighting up 34 light-emitting diodes (LEDs) by only hand-tapping the fabric. SWF-TENG can be mass-manufactured by using the weaving machine, which decreases fabricating costs and accelerates industrialization. Based on these merits, this work provides a promising direction toward stretchable fabric-based TENGs with wide applications in wearable electronics, including energy harvesting and self-powered sensing. Full article

The circular business model (CBM) is one of the main building blocks of circular economy (CE), and recycling is one of the main strategies for achieving it. CBM literature is currently evolving, and recycling-oriented discussion has been found in a scattered manner. This review article aims to identify critical components of the recycling-focused business model in CE and evaluate potential business and research opportunities in the area. Data collection was undertaken from the Web of Science (WoS) core collection and ScienceDirect database. Results of the study showed that efficiency of municipal solid waste management, reporting mechanism of recyclers cost of recycled materials, the establishment of a plastic hub, implementation of extended producer responsibility, strategic partnership, incentives, and product design were highlighted as critical requirements for efficient recycling operated business models, especially for waste solar PV panels, e-waste, textile waste, and vehicles and battery sector. It also identified the benefits of using recycled materials in reducing carbon footprint, energy consumption, and achieving low environmental impact. Three-dimensional printing, sensor-based RFID tags, digital twins, additive manufacturing, Industry 4.0, and the Internet of Things (IoT) were found as state-of-the-art technological innovations applied to recycling-oriented circular business models. This article provides critical practical solutions for new business model development and indicates vital future research directions along with a conceptual framework development, which would be helpful for policymakers, business entities, and research academics. Full article

Wireless energy harvesting, a technique to generate direct current (DC) electricity from ambient wireless signals, has recently been featured as a potential solution to reduce the battery size, extend the battery life, or replace batteries altogether for wearable electronics. Unlike other energy harvesting techniques, wireless energy harvesting has a prominent advantage of ceaseless availability of ambient signals, but the common form of technology involves a major challenge of limited output power because of a relatively low ambient energy density. Moreover, the archetypal wireless energy harvesters are made of printed circuit boards (PCBs), which are rigid, bulky, and heavy, and hence they are not eminently suitable for body-worn applications from both aesthetic and comfort points of view. In order to overcome these limitations, textile-based wireless energy harvesting architectures have been proposed in the past decade. Being made of textile materials, this new class of harvesters can be seamlessly integrated into clothing in inherently aesthetic and comfortable forms. In addition, since clothing offers a large surface area, multiple harvesting units can be deployed to enhance the output power. In view of these unique and irreplaceable benefits, this paper reviews key recent progress in textile-based wireless energy harvesting strategies for powering body-worn electronics. Comparisons with other power harvesting technologies, historical development, fundamental principles of operation and techniques for fabricating textile-based wireless power harvesters are first recapitulated, followed by a review on the principal advantages, challenges, and opportunities. It is one of the purposes of this paper to peruse the current state-of-the-art and build a scientific knowledge base to aid further advancement of power solutions for wearable electronics. Full article

This paper presents a universal fabrication process for single-layer textile supercapacitors, independent of textile properties such as weave pattern, thickness and material. To achieve this, an engineered copolymer membrane was fabricated within these textiles with an automated screen printing, phase inversion and vacuum curing process. This membrane, together with the textile yarns, acts as a porous, flexible and mechanically durable separator. This process was applied to four textiles, including polyester, two polyester-cottons and silk. Carbon-based electrodes were subsequently deposited onto both sides of the textile to form the textile supercapacitors. These supercapacitors achieved a range of areal capacitances between 3.12 and 38.2 mF·cm⁻², with energy densities between 0.279 and 0.681 mWh·cm⁻³ with average power densities of between 0.334 and 0.32 W·cm⁻³. This novel membrane facilitates the use of thinner textiles for single-layered textile supercapacitors without significantly sacrificing electrochemical performance and will enable future high energy density textile energy storage, from supercapacitors to batteries. Full article

Fungal quinones can be used for a variety of applications, such as pharmaceuticals, food colorants, textile dyes, and battery electrolytes. However, when producing quinones by fungal cultivation, many considerations arise regarding the feasibility of a production system, such as the quinone yield, purity, ease of extraction, and the co-production of mycotoxins. In this work, we display the initial screening of filamentous fungi for quinone production and evaluate their potential for future optimization. We investigated toluquinone (TQ) potentially produced by Penicillium cf. griseofulvum, terreic acid (TA) produced by Aspergillus parvulus and A. christenseniae, and anthraquinone (AQ) monomers and dimers produced by Talaromyces islandicus. The strains grew on various agar and/or liquid media and were analyzed by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography–diode array detection–quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-DAD-QTOF MS). In the case of AQs, feature-based molecular networking (FBMN) was used for the identification of AQ analogs. TQ was not observed in the production strains. TA constituted one of the major chromatogram peaks and was secreted into the growth medium by A. parvulus. The AQs constituted many major chromatogram peaks in the mycelium extracts and endocrocin and citreorosein were observed extracellularly in small amounts. Full article