Smart Electronic Yarns and Wearable Fabrics for Human Biomonitoring made by Carbon Nanotube Coating with Polyelectrolytes

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• 作者：Bong Sup Shim ; Wei Chen ; Chris Doty ; Chuanlai Xu ; Nicholas A. Kotov
• 刊名：Nano Letters
• 出版年：2008
• 出版时间：December 10, 2008
• 年：2008
• 卷：8
• 期：12
• 页码：4151-4157
• 全文大小：370K
• 年卷期：v.8,no.12(December 10, 2008)
• ISSN：1530-6992

文摘

The idea of electronic yarns and textiles has appeared for quite some time, but their properties often do not meet practical expectations. In addition to chemical/mechanical durability and high electrical conductivity, important materials qualifications include weavablity, wearability, light weight, and “smart” functionalities. Here we demonstrate a simple process of transforming general commodity cotton threads into intelligent e-textiles using a polyelectrolyte-based coating with carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Efficient charge transport through the network of nanotubes (20 Ω/cm) and the possibility to engineer tunneling junctions make them promising materials for many high-knowledge-content garments. Along with integrated humidity sensing, we demonstrate that CNT−cotton threads can be used to detect albumin, the key protein of blood, with high sensitivity and selectivity. Notwithstanding future challenges, these proof-of-concept demonstrations provide a direct pathway for the application of these materials as wearable biomonitoring and telemedicine sensors, which are simple, sensitive, selective, and versatile.