Ultra-fine self-powered interactive fiber electronics for smart clothing

Fiber electronics discretely integrated into daily life is taking center stage for its enormous potentials for healthcare, physiological monitoring, and human-machine interfaces. However, the state-of-the-art fiber elec-tronics are remarkably distinguished from generic fibers in diameter, stiffness, smoothness, and productivity. Here, we developed a universal scalable manufacturing process and generic fiber-like fine and soft self-powered interactive electronics with a diameter of only dozens of mu m and a continuous length of hundreds of kilometers. These fiber electronics are prepared with a large-scale manufacturing speed (>20 m/min), and adapt to modern textile technology including weaving, knitting, sewing and embroidering. Moreover, Kawabata evaluation sys-tem for fabrics was systematically employed to analyze the fiber electronics enabled e-textile's sensorial comfort, suggesting that adding the fiber electronics to fabric benefits its tactile sensations (e.g., softness, fluffy and fullness). Based on tribotronics, the interactive fiber electronics-based smart clothing demonstrates versatile applications including biomechanical energy harvesting, vital signal detecting, human motion recognizing and tactile sensing.

Automated summary

Fiber electronics integrated into daily life have enormous potentials in healthcare, physiological monitoring, and human-machine interfaces. We developed a scalable manufacturing process to produce fine and soft self-powered interactive fiber electronics. These fiber electronics can be manufactured at a high speed and integrated into textiles, improving their tactile comfort. The interactive fiber electronics-based smart clothing demonstrates versatile applications including energy harvesting, vital signal detecting, motion recognizing, and tactile sensing based on tribotronics.