According to foreign media reports, Rice University researchers recently demonstrated a clothing with carbon nanotubes that can continuously monitor the wearer's heart. There's no need to wear an uncomfortable smartwatch or chest strap to monitor your heart if your comfortable clothing does a better job. That's the idea behind "smart clothing" developed by a Rice University lab that uses its conductive nanowires to weave functionality into regular clothing.
Matteo Pasquali, a chemical and biomolecular engineer at the school's Brown School of Engineering, reports in Nano Letters, a journal of the American Chemical Society, that it sewn nanotube fibers into sportswear to monitor heart rate and perform continuous electrocardiographic monitoring of the wearer. .
Teadlaste sõnul on kiud juhtivad nagu metalltraadid, kuid on pestavad, mugavad ja palju väiksema tõenäosusega purunevad, kui keha liigub. Üldiselt kogusid nende täiustatud rõivad andmeid paremini kui tavalised rindkere{0}}rihmamonitorid, mis tegid katsetes välimõõtmisi. Kaubanduslike meditsiiniliste elektroodmonitoridega sobitades toimisid süsiniknanotorust rõivad EKG-del veidi paremini.
"The garment had to fit snugly against the chest," said Rice graduate student Lauren Taylor, lead author of the study. "In future research, we will focus on using denser blocks of carbon nanowires so that there is more surface area to contact the skin."
Teadlased märgivad, et nanotoru kiud on pehmed ja elastsed ning neid sisaldavaid riideid saab masinas pesta. Neid kiude saab masinõmmelda kangale nagu tavalist niiti. Siksak-õmblusmuster võimaldab kangastel venida neid lõhkumata.
The fibers not only provide a stable electrical contact with the wearer's skin, Taylor said, but also act as electrodes to connect electronic devices such as Bluetooth transmitters, relay data to smartphones, or connect to Holter monitors that can fit in the user's pocket. device.
Pasquali's lab introduced carbon nanotube fibers in 2013. Since then, fibers containing tens of billions of nanotubes each have been studied to repair bridges in damaged hearts, as electrical interfaces to the brain, for cochlear implants, as flexible antennas, and for automotive and aerospace applications. Their development is also part of the Rice-based Carbon Center, a multi-university research initiative led by Rice and launched in 2019.
Algsed nanotoru niidid olid umbes 22 mikronit laiad, liiga õhukesed, et õmblusmasin käsitseda saaks. Taylor ütles, et õmmeldava niidi loomiseks kasutati köievalmistajat, millest igaüks koosneb kolmest seitsmest filamendist koosnevast kimpust, mis on kootud ligikaudu sama suureks kui tavaline niit.
"We worked with a guy who sold a little machine designed to make ropes for model boats," says Taylor, who initially tried to weave the thread by hand with limited success. "He was able to make us a mid-scale device that could do that."
Ta ütles, et sik{0}}sakmustrit saab kohandada vastavalt sellele, kui palju veniv võib olla spordirõivad või muu kangas. Taylor ütles, et meeskond teeb koostööd dr Mehdi Razavi ja tema kolleegidega Texase Südameinstituudist, et välja selgitada, kuidas maksimeerida nahakontakti.
Uurijad ütlesid, et kanga sisse kootud kiude saab kasutada ka antennide või LED-ide kinnistamiseks. Kerged muudatused kiudude geomeetrias ja sellega seotud elektroonikas võivad lõpuks võimaldada rõivastel jälgida elulisi näitajaid, pingutust või hingamissagedust.
Other potential uses could include human-machine interfaces in cars or soft robots, or as antennas, health monitors and bulletproof protection for military uniforms, Taylor noted. "We demonstrated with a collaborator a few years ago that carbon nanotube fibers dissipate energy better per unit weight than Kevlar fibers, and that's without some of our later progress in tensile strength," she said. "
"We're seeing this material play a role in more and more applications after 20 years of development in laboratories around the world," Pasquali said. "Carbon nanotubes are a natural building block for wearable devices due to their combination of electrical conductivity, good skin contact, biocompatibility and softness."
Kuigi kantavate esemete turg on suhteliselt väike, võib see olla sisenemispunkt uue põlvkonna säästvatele materjalidele, mida saab süsivesinikest eraldada otsese jagamise teel, mis toodab ka puhast vesinikku, ütles ta. Selle materjali väljatöötamine on süsinikukeskuse fookuses.
"We are in the same situation as solar cells were decades ago," Pasquali said. "We need application leaders that can power scale-up of production and improve efficiency."
