Development of Smart Textile from Sustainable and Antibacterial Poplar Fibers

Abstract

Textiles have been employed to cover human bodies for thousands of years, and now, scientists are combining textiles with advanced materials and electronic components to come up with wearable smart textile applications. In this study, untraditional and sustainable natural poplar fibers have been utilized to create a capacitive-based sensor. For this purpose, poplar fibers were converted to nonwoven pads via a spray coating method. Subsequently, these pads were coated with silver nanowires through a simple and scalable dip-coating process. The resultant conductive poplar pads were then isolated with a dielectric layer and used as a capacitive sensor. This sensor was integrated with a microcontroller, a GPS module, a Wi-Fi module, and a DC converter. Finally, the entire electronic components were embedded into a t-shirt. The act of gently pressing on a designated area on the t-shirt activates the sensing mechanism, prompting the system to dispatch an e-mail containing the user’s precise location to predetermined contacts, such as relatives, partners, or healthcare providers. The objective of this study is to develop a smart textile solution, especially for elderly individuals living independently with a focus on helping them during emergencies, such as heart attacks or brain hemorrhages. While demonstrating a novel application for the smart textile industry, an environmentally friendly study is also aimed at using sustainable poplar fibers. Moreover, it aims to showcase the bactericidal properties of poplar fibers against bacteria, opening up new possibilities for its usage in various applications in the future.