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. .
Raws li cov kws tshawb fawb, cov fibers zoo li cov hlau xaim, tab sis yog ntxuav tau, xis nyob, thiab tsis tshua tawg thaum lub cev txav mus los. Zuag qhia tag nrho, lawv cov ris tsho txhim kho tau zoo dua los ntawm kev sau cov ntaub ntawv dua li cov qauv hauv siab -cov hlua saib uas tau ntsuas qhov ntsuas hauv qhov kev sim. Thaum sib txuam nrog kev lag luam kho mob electrode saib, cov pa roj carbon nanotube garments ua tau zoo me ntsis ntawm ECGs.
"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."
Cov kws tshawb fawb tau taw qhia tias cov nanotube fibers yog mos thiab elastic, thiab cov khaub ncaws sib xyaw ua ke tuaj yeem siv tshuab ntxhua. Cov fibers no tuaj yeem ua tshuab sewn rau ntawm cov ntaub zoo li cov qauv xov. Cov qauv zigzag stitching tso cai rau cov ntaub kom ncab yam tsis tau tawg.
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.
Thawj nanotube filaments yog hais txog 22 microns dav, nyias nyias rau lub tshuab xaws los tuav. Ib txoj hlua tsim tau siv los tsim cov xov sewable, pib peb pob ntawm xya filaments txhua, woven kom zoo ib yam li cov xov tsis tu ncua, Taylor hais.
"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."
Tus qauv zig-zag tuaj yeem hloov kho raws li qhov hnyav npaum li cas hnav khaub ncaws ncaws pob lossis lwm yam ntaub, nws hais. Taylor tau hais tias pab neeg no tab tom ua haujlwm nrog Dr. Mehdi Razavi thiab nws cov npoj yaig ntawm Texas Heart Institute txhawm rau txheeb xyuas seb yuav ua li cas txhawm rau txhawm rau txhawm rau tiv thaiv daim tawv nqaij.
Cov fibers woven rau hauv ntaub kuj yuav siv tau rau embed kav hlau txais xov los yog LEDs, cov kws tshawb fawb hais tias. Kev hloov kho me ntsis rau cov fiber ntau geometry thiab cov khoom siv hluav taws xob cuam tshuam tuaj yeem tso cai rau cov khaub ncaws los saib xyuas cov cim tseem ceeb, kev siv zog lossis kev ua pa.
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."
Lub khw muag khoom hnav, thaum me me, tuaj yeem yog qhov chaw nkag rau lub cim tshiab ntawm cov khoom siv ruaj khov uas tuaj yeem muab rho tawm los ntawm hydrocarbons los ntawm kev sib cais ncaj qha, tus txheej txheem uas kuj tsim cov hydrogen huv, nws hais. Kev tsim cov khoom siv no yog qhov tseem ceeb ntawm Carbon Center.
"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."
