Scientists of Tomsk Polytechnic University are conducting research, which will help to create fabric for smart clothing. It will be capable to sense human biopotential. The project is being implemented with the support of the Priority 2030 program by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation. Professors Eugenia Sheremet and Raul David Rodriguez Contreras gave more information about the research carried out by the TPU TERS-Team under their supervision.
Today, the global academic community is engaged in the search and development of technology, which will allow arranging large-scale production of the smart clothing capable to sense body signals and transferring information. In the long run, technology development will make possible complex sensing of human parameters starting from an electrocardiogram and ending with measuring the sweat composition. The creation of a new kind of material can solve this problem. The smart clothing must be comfortable, skin safe and resistant to all possible deformations and moisture.
Within the research works to create such materials, the TPU researchers applied laser integration of graphene into a polymer. This technology allows obtaining stable materials for flexible electronics. The method core involves laser processing of the graphene deposited on the mat. As the result, there is created a conductive composition material, the structure of which is possible to adjust depending on the fact what parameters must be obtained.
“Using a laser, it is possible to ‘draw’ various structures on the surface quite easy and cheap. It is required for applying electronics to the fabric creating more effective electrode and component geometry and controlling their shape. We were able to obtain such modes and material sets, which allow creating highly stable conductive composition materials of the required shape within a very simple technological process,”
comments Eugenia Sheremet, professor of the TPU Research School of Chemistry and Applied Biomedical Sciences.
At the moment, the scientists are busy adjusting the revealed modes. The carried out research works must prove that with the use of technology, it is possible to create the structure on the fabric that meets the general requirements of the smart clothing.
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Tomsk Polytechnic University is a member of Priority 2030, a national program to support Russian universities, in the research leadership track. The university entered group one of the research track with the maximum grant sponsorship.
In the TPU Development Program supported within Priority 2030, the university focuses on three strategic projects: Energy of Future, Healthcare Engineering and New Engineering Education.