Imagine a coat that captures solar energy to keep you warm during a chilly winter walk or a shirt that monitors your heart rate and body temperature without needing bulky battery packs. This vision is now a reality, thanks to groundbreaking research conducted by a team at the University of Waterloo.
Researchers at Waterloo have developed a revolutionary smart fabric capable of harvesting energy from both body heat and sunlight. This fabric can power itself continuously, eliminating the need for external power sources or frequent recharging.
Professor Yuning Li, who leads the Printable Electronic Materials Lab in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Waterloo, emphasizes the significance of this breakthrough.
“We have developed a fabric material with multifunctional sensing capabilities and self-powering potential,” Li said. “This innovation brings us closer to practical applications for smart fabrics.”
The smart fabric, developed in collaboration with Professor Chaoxia Wang and PhD student Jun Peng from the College of Textile Science and Engineering at Jiangnan University, integrates advanced materials such as MXene and conductive polymers with cutting-edge textile technologies.
The result is a material that is more stable, durable, and cost-effective than current fabrics on the market, making it ideal for wearable technology.
One of the fabric’s most promising applications lies in the health sector. With its ability to detect temperature changes and monitor various other metrics, the fabric could be used to create smart face masks.
These masks would have the capability to track breath temperature and rate, detect chemicals in the breath, and help identify conditions such as viral infections, lung cancer, and more.
“AI technology is evolving rapidly, offering sophisticated signal analysis for health monitoring, food and pharmaceutical storage, environmental monitoring, and more,” Li noted.
“However, this progress relies on extensive data collection, which conventional sensors—often bulky, heavy, and costly—cannot meet. Printed sensors, including those embedded in smart fabrics, are ideal for continuous data collection and monitoring. This new smart fabric is a step forward in making these applications practical.”
The next phase of research will focus on further enhancing the fabric’s performance. The Waterloo team plans to work closely with electrical and computer engineers to integrate the fabric with electronic components.
Future developments could include a smartphone app that tracks and transmits data from the fabric to healthcare professionals, enabling real-time, non-invasive health monitoring for everyday use.
