A. Inman
Mantel Technologies,
United States
Keywords: wearables, nanomaterials, MXene, e-textiles, energy storage, sensing
Summary:
E-textiles can create new user experiences and provide comfortable monitoring of patient vitals and provide accurate performance metrics, however many gaps exist that impede the progress of e-textiles out of the lab. MXenes, a novel two-dimensional material offer a significant material advance that can be utilized for e-textiles and wearables. MXenes can be applied directly to textiles with a variety of deposition methods as an additive-free ink or dye that can add mixed functionality to virtually any textile. MXenes are highly conductive, have a high electrochemically active surface area, and are optically active. We demonstrate the functionalization of textiles with MXene by printing that can act as wireless charging coils, surface electromyography electrodes, and Joule heaters. Additionally, we demonstrate that textiles dyed with MXenes can act as excellent textile-based supercapacitor and battery electrodes capable of powering real-world electronics that are sensing and transmitting data for over 90 minutes.