When you say "shedding your skin": the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Waterloo has developed new intelligent, programmable and temperature- and electricity-responsive fabrics. When stimulated, they change color and shape. What does it mean? At first glance I would say clothes that get warm while walking to the office in winter, or bumpers that return to their original shape after an accident. In reality it could be much, much more.
And the best part is that these fabrics are made with polymer nano-composite fibers obtained from recycled plastics. In two words: cheap and (quite) sustainable.
A world of practical applications
Dr. Milad Kamkar, first author of the research published in the journal Small (I link it to you here), says that this material has enormous potential. In many fields: first of all artificial intelligence, robotics and virtual reality. I actually hadn't thought of that: think of gloves or clothes capable of transmitting heat or physical stimuli during a virtual reality experience. Training programs could be greatly improved through this tool (yes, it's not just video games).
The innovative design of these fabrics, as mentioned, is the result of the union of soft and rigid materials. Combines high-performance polymer composites and stainless steel in a very thin woven structure. The researchers created a device similar to a traditional loom to weave smart fabric, achieving an extremely versatile process and macroscopic control of the material properties.
How do they work
Smart fabric research stems from the science of biomimetics, explains Kamkar, director of the Multi-scale Materials Design (MMD) Center in Waterloo. Thanks to its ability to interact with the environment to monitor ecosystems without damaging them, this material represents an incredible innovation. It can be activated, the researcher explains, by a lower electrical voltage than previous systems, making it more energy efficient and more economical. Not to mention the fact that the low voltage allows integration into smaller, more portable devices, making it suitable for biomedical devices and environmental sensors.
Programmable fabrics: the next steps
The next goal is to improve performance in terms of shape memory for applications in the field of robotics. The idea is to build a robot capable of carrying and transferring weight effectively to carry out specific tasks, with a... "warm" embrace, and then leaving it to cool.
