Smart Clothes That Monitor Health

Men Fashion

oi-Staff

By Super

Wednesday, October 5, 2011, 9:19

Now your clothing will be able to monitor your health. The researchers at the University of Michigan have shown that a carbon nanotube-coated 'smart yarn', which conducts electricity, could be woven into soft fabrics that detect blood and monitor health. The researchers claim that an unconscious wounded soldier can't send a distress signal to a central command post, but wearing clothes made of 'smart yarn' could solve that problem.

"Currently, smart textiles are made primarily of metallic or optical fibres. They're fragile. They're not comfortable. Metal fibers also corrode. There are problems with washing such electronic textiles. We have found a much simpler way an elegant way by combining two fibres, one natural and one created by nanotechnology," said Nicholas Kotov, a professor in the departments of Chemical Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering and Biomedical Engineering.

The e-textiles were created by dipping 1.5-millimeter thick cotton yarn into a solution of carbon nanotubes in water and then into a solution of a special sticky polymer in ethanol. After the process the yarn was able to conduct enough power from a battery to illuminate a light-emitting diode device.

"This turns out to be very easy to do. After just a few repetitions of the process, this normal cotton becomes a conductive material because carbon nanotubes are conductive," Kotov said. The only change in the yarn was that it turned black due to carbon but remaines soft and pliable.

To test the conductivity of the textiles, the researchers added the antibody anti-albumin to the carbon nanotube solution. Anti-albumin reacts with albumin, a protein found in blood. On exposing the anti-albumin-infused smart yarn to albumin, it was found that the conductivity significantly increased. Their new material is more sensitive and selective as well as more simple and durable than other electronic textiles.

"The concept of electrically sensitive clothing made of carbon-nanotube-coated cotton is flexible in implementations and can be adapted for a variety of health monitoring tasks as well as high performance garments," Kotov said.

The 'smart' clothing can be of great use in the professions that involve high risk.