Sun Huaibin, vice president of China Textile Industry Federation, said: Nowadays, innovation-driven technology industry, culture-led fashion industry and responsibility-oriented green industry have gradually become the new label of textile and garment industry. Under the new era background, can the textile industry complete the gorgeous functional transformation with the help of new technology? We may be able to explore from the following research and development results.
1 EPFL develops new elastic fibers, or changes the smart clothing. The Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland (EPFL) has developed a micro-fiber made of elastomer, which can detect the slightest pressure and strain and can withstand nearly five times the deformation before restoring the initial shape. These characteristics are enough to ensure its perfect application in smart clothing, prosthetics, and robots. Artificial nerve. When the fiber is integrated into the robot's finger as an artificial nerve, when the robot's finger touches the object, the electrodes in the fiber will transmit information about the tactile interaction between the robot and the surrounding environment. In addition, this technology can also develop touch keyboards directly integrated into clothing.
2. LED and sensor are directly woven into textile fibers, or can realize health monitoring. The MIT team directly woven light emitting diodes (LED) and sensors into textile-grade polymer fibers. This process can be used in new wearable technologies for optical communication and health monitoring. The team tested the durability of these diode fibers in standard household washing machines. Research shows that a two-way optical communication link can be established between two kinds of textiles including optical detection and optical emission dimension. Not only that, the smart textiles can also be used to measure the wearer's heart rate.
University of Delaware: New nano-sensors give birth to wearable smart textiles in the future "smart clothes" may use fabric with sensing technology. Sensors can be made on shoes or clothes to detect human motion at any time. The team of the University of Delaware has prepared conductive nanocomposite coatings on fibers by electrophoretic deposition of polyethyleneimine functionalized carbon nanotubes (EPD). The coating has good flexibility and touch. Its thickness is only 250-750 nanometers, and it only adds about 1 gram of weight to traditional shoes or clothes. It has been tested on Kevlar, wool, nylon, spandex and polyester and other natural and synthetic fibers. This technology has great application prospects in sports medicine, post-operative recovery and evaluation of children's motor disorders.
Using natural silk, Korean researchers have developed high temperature resistant silk-based electronic textiles. Natural silk consists of biopolymer protein chains, which can maintain structural stability even at extremely high temperatures (up to 2800 C). Korean researchers use this characteristic to make electronic textiles from silk protein after heat treatment and stretching, which can be used to produce a new generation of portable and flexible electronic devices, especially those embedded in clothing, packaging or other objects.
5. Chitosan hydrogel modified textiles, a new breakthrough in medical field. Chitosan is a derivative of chitin, and chitin is a common substance in chitin and exoskeleton. Chitosan has a good inhibitory effect on the growth of various bacteria and fungi. In order to inhibit the growth of microorganisms on medical textiles, Mariem Trad and his colleagues used chitosan to synthesize hydrogels with less impact on human health and applied them to ionically activated cellulose fibers to improve their antimicrobial activity. Studies have shown that textiles treated with water gels also exhibit enhanced hygroscopicity and maintain high vapor permeability, without affecting their performance.
6 Imitating the silk fibers of Comet Moth, the fibers produced by the ultra-porous multi-functional fiber of Comet Moth of Madagascar (Argemamittrei) not only have excellent cooling performance, but also have the special ability to transmit light signals and images. Researchers at the Columbia Project have developed a spin-based artificial fiber technology that can be used to make ultra-thin summer clothes, which have the characteristics of "air-conditioning". They are much thicker than a sheet of paper and do not become translucent when people sweat.
7 UBC researchers have solved the problem of wrinkling in textile composites. Textile composites are widely used in prototyping because of their high strength and durability. At the same time, they have been put into mass production in aerospace, energy, automobile and ocean fields. But wrinkling is one of the most common defects of textile composites. UBC Composite Research Center-Okinagan researchers explored several different wrinkle removal methods, and eventually found that in the manufacturing process of textile composites, wrinkle removal efficiency can be improved by stretching materials in both directions at the same time. They use a customized two-axis fixture to achieve wrinkle removal efficiency, and design and manufacture a clip that stretches the fabric and eliminates unwanted bulges and wrinkles.
Shanning Tai has endowed polyester textiles with innovative odor management. Goodbye to the stubborn odor, Shanning Tai is one of the world's leading manufacturers of antimicrobial and sanitary functions and materials protection for textiles and polymers. Its newly developed washable Shanning Tai Odoractiv 10 has dual functions: it can prevent bacteria from staying on the textiles, and it can also absorb odor in wear.
