Energy-harvesting materials for smart fabrics and textiles

This article reviews materials developed to enable energy harvesting from textiles. It includes energy harvesting from mechanical, thermal, and light sources, and covers materials employed into yarns that can be woven into the textile and films that are deposited onto the surface of the textile. The...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:MRS bulletin 2018-03, Vol.43 (3), p.214-219
Main Authors: Torah, Russel, Lawrie-Ashton, Jake, Li, Yi, Arumugam, Sasikumar, Sodano, Henry A., Beeby, Steve
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied and Technical Physics
Characterization and Evaluation of Materials
Computer science
Dye-sensitized solar cells
Electric fields
Electrodes
Energy
Energy harvesting
Energy Materials
Fabrics
Fluorides
International conferences
Lead zirconate titanates
Light sources
Materials Engineering
Materials for Energy Harvesting
Materials Science
Nanotechnology
Nanowires
Photovoltaic cells
Polymer films
Polymers
Smart materials
Textile industry
Textiles
Vinylidene fluoride
Yarn
Yarns
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This article reviews materials developed to enable energy harvesting from textiles. It includes energy harvesting from mechanical, thermal, and light sources, and covers materials employed into yarns that can be woven into the textile and films that are deposited onto the surface of the textile. The textile places challenging constraints on the materials, for example, by limiting processing temperatures to typically less than 150°C and presenting a rough, inconsistent surface profile. Example materials include a screen-printable low-temperature composite lead zirconate titanate polymer film and poly(vinylidene fluoride) polymer fibers, both of which have been shown to harvest mechanical energy from textiles. Thermoelectric solutions demonstrated thus far are limited and challenging to implement within a textile. Photovoltaic solutions include organic and dye-sensitized solar cells fabricated into functionalized yarns and as films spray-coated onto textiles. While numerous suitable example materials and textile devices have been demonstrated, work is still needed to develop these into practical energy-harvesting solutions.
ISSN:0883-7694
1938-1425
DOI:10.1557/mrs.2018.9