According to the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Donghua University, the research team has made new progress in the field of smart fiber research. These seemingly distant high technologies are becoming increasingly closer to our lives as fiber materials become more functional and intelligent.
Color-changing clothes may enable the freedom to "transform".
In layman's terms, smart fibers are fibers that can actively sense and respond to the external environment and make corresponding reactions. Everyday items such as clothing, accessories, and home textiles could potentially generate their own electricity, light, heat, and even change color if they were made with smart fibers.
At the State Key Laboratory of Fiber Materials Modification at Donghua University, Professor Wang Hongzhi's research group from the School of Materials Science and Engineering has achieved autonomous color change of fibers under an electrified environment through repeated experiments. With just a low voltage stimulus of 2-3V, the fiber can change color from red to yellow to blue within milliseconds and maintain the color for up to half an hour. The fiber can still change color even when twisted, knotted, or woven.
This also verifies that modifying fiber materials using scientific methods can indeed make fibers and fiber products "smarter" and more "thoughtful," undergoing various amazing changes according to people's work and life needs. "Take color-changing fibers as an example. This can not only help us realize our dream of wearing 'rainbow clothes,' but also has great application value in camouflage and other fields. I believe that in the future, our soldiers will be able to freely 'transform' in the desert, jungle, and ocean while wearing a set of military uniforms," Professor Wang Hongzhi introduced.
Spinning can be used to make graphene solar cells and also to weave fabrics.
The advent of Google Glass sparked a trend in wearable smart devices, but even today, energy supply remains a major challenge in the development of smart devices. For example, the Google Glass frame always requires a somewhat bulky lithium-ion battery with limited lifespan. This problem is equally challenging in the development of smart clothing. How can the energy supply of smart clothing be made lighter and longer-lasting? Research experts from the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Donghua University envision starting from the "root" of fiber—if the conductivity and energy storage properties of the fiber can be improved, while also making it highly woven, allowing the energy supply device to become an integral part of the clothing itself, wouldn't that maximize the lightness of smart clothing while ensuring a reliable energy supply?
To this end, researchers have targeted graphene, hailed by the industry as a "super material" capable of triggering a new revolution in materials science. The Ministry of Education's Changjiang Scholar Innovation Team, led by Professor Zhu Meifang, Dean of the School of Materials Science and Engineering and a Changjiang Scholar, is currently using a wet spinning method to sustainably prepare graphene fibers thousands of meters long. These fibers not only boast the highest electrical conductivity among similar products but also possess internationally leading strength. They can be easily woven into the desired fabric types while maintaining ideal conductivity and strength. Through strong collaboration with relevant research groups both domestically and internationally, the team has also successfully assembled graphene fibers into supercapacitors. Weaving these capacitors into fabrics could simultaneously enable smart clothing for both energy storage and transmission.
In addition, researchers have made significant breakthroughs in the development of "fiber-like flexible solar cells." According to researcher Chen Zhigang of the institute, fiber-like flexible solar cells have been developed in the laboratory. "To put it simply, in the future, fiber-like solar cells could be used to weave fabric, allowing clothing to convert solar energy into electricity on its own." Chen Zhigang also acknowledged that although fiber-like flexible solar cells possess superior properties such as weavability, low carbon footprint, long battery life, and light weight, perfectly meeting the requirements of smart clothing, their relatively high cost and the need to improve energy conversion efficiency mean that it will take some time before these cells move from the laboratory to everyday use.
