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Jun Peng, a doctoral student at the University of Waterloo, wears a mask made of smart material that can detect lung cancer and viruses in the breath.
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Photo credit: University of Waterloo
Imagine a coat that can absorb solar energy and keep you warm on a cold winter walk, or a shirt that can monitor your heart rate and temperature. Imagine clothing that allows athletes to track their performance without the need for bulky battery packs.
Researchers at the University of Waterloo have developed a smart fabric with these remarkable capabilities. The fabric has the potential for applications in energy harvesting, health monitoring and motion tracking.
The new fabric, developed by a research team from Waterloo, can convert body heat and solar energy into electricity and could enable continuous operation without an external power source. Various sensors can be integrated into the material to monitor temperature, stress and more.
It can detect temperature changes and has a number of other sensors to monitor pressure, chemical composition and more. One promising application is smart face masks that can track breathing temperature and rate and detect chemicals in the breath to identify viruses, lung cancer and other diseases.
“We have developed a fabric material with multifunctional sensing capabilities and self-powering potential,” said Yuning Li, professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering. “This innovation brings us closer to the practical application of smart fabrics.”
Unlike current wearable devices that often rely on external power sources or frequent charging, this groundbreaking research has produced a novel fabric that is stronger, more durable and more cost-effective than other fabrics on the market.
This research, conducted in collaboration with Professor Chaoxia Wang and PhD student Jun Peng from the College of Textile Science and Engineering, Jiangnan University, demonstrates the potential of integrating advanced materials such as MXene and conductive polymers with cutting-edge textile technologies to further develop smart fabrics for wearable technology.
Li, director of Waterloo’s Printable Electronic Materials Lab, emphasized the importance of this advance, which represents the latest in the university’s line of technologies pushing health boundaries.
“AI technology is evolving rapidly, offering sophisticated signal analysis for health monitoring, food and drug storage, environmental monitoring, and more. However, this advancement depends on comprehensive data collection that traditional sensors, which are often bulky, heavy, and expensive, cannot provide,” Li said. “Printed sensors, including those embedded in smart fabrics, are ideal for continuous data collection and monitoring. This new smart fabric is a step forward in making these applications practical.”
The next phase of research will focus on further improving the performance of the tissue and its integration with electronic components in collaboration with electrical and computer engineers. Future developments could include a smartphone app that can track data from the tissue and transmit it to healthcare professionals, enabling non-invasive, real-time health monitoring and everyday use.
The study was published in Journal of Materials Science and Technology.
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