Communications of the ACM
Conductive Cotton: Scientists Fashioning Electronic Future For Cotton Fiber
Credit: CNet
The latest breakthrough in cotton fiber research has scientists envisioning hospital gowns that monitor medical patients and jerseys that test athletic performance, according to Cornell University fiber scientist Juan Hinestroza, co-author of a new study that reveals how everyday cotton can be turned into high-tech fabric.
Hinestroza, professor of fiber science in Cornell's College of Human Ecology, is part of an international team that developed transistors using natural cotton fibers, gold nanoparticles and polymers. The research builds on Hinestroza's previous work indicating such technology is possible. "Organic Electronics on Natural Cotton Fibres," by Giorgio Mattanaa, Piero Cosseddua, Beatrice Frabonib, George G. Malliarasc, Juan P. Hinestrozad, and Annalisa Bonfiglio, is currently online and will be published in the December 2011 issue of the journal Organic Electronics.
The innovation represents a significant step forward because it lays the groundwork for creating even more complex devices, such as cotton-based circuits, Hinestroza says. This would allow fabrics to sense body temperature, automatically heat up or cool down, track heart rate and blood pressure in high-risk patients, and monitor the physical effort of high-performance athletes.
"Perhaps one day we can even build computers out of cotton fibers in a similar way as khipus — a recording device based on knots and used by the Inca empire in Peru," Hinestroza says.
In the study, the first step was aimed at creating a conformal layer of gold nanoparticles over the rough topography of cotton. The next layers were either conductive or semiconductive coatings; the final step was to build the devices. "The layers were so thin that the flexibility of the cotton fibers was preserved," Hinestroza says.
Two kinds of active transistors, organic electrochemical transistors and organic field effect transistors, were also demonstrated. Both kinds are widely used in the electronics industry as components of integrated circuits, which control the functions of such common devices as phones, televisions and game consoles.
No entries found