Textiles - Page 7

Advanced materials company Versarien recently shared that it has signed a commercial partnership agreement with textile-sector company MAS Innovation. The agreement followed a letter of intent between the parties, which set out their intent to enter into a formal commercial partnership.

The agreement specifies the terms under which the parties would secure commercial orders for garments developed using Versarien's proprietary graphene ink materials. It allowed both parties to finalize additional contractual terms with third party brands.

Researchers at Valencia's Polytechnic University (UPV) have developed new devices that store electric charge in textile materials, which could be used to, for example, charge mobile phones. These are supercondensers placed on active carbon tissues that stand out due to their electric properties and high level of power.

The study focused on using textile materials as electrodes. In this case, the devices that were designed and tested make use of active carbon, graphene and polyaniline, a polymer with high capabilities that is already broadly used in textile materials.

Australia-based graphene and data analytics company, Imagine Intelligent Materials, has developed an integrated sensing solution that uses graphene coatings and edge-based signal processing devices to collect data from objects with large surface areas.

Proven over areas as large as 4,000 square meters, the system gathers data such as pressure, moisture, stress and temperature and is aimed at industrial and consumer applications in the IoT market.

Scientists from RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, have developed a cost-efficient and scalable method for rapidly fabricating textiles that are embedded with energy storage devices. The team reports that in just three minutes, the method can produce a 10x10cm smart textile patch that's waterproof, stretchable and readily integrated with energy technologies like graphene supercapacitors, laser printed directly onto the textiles.

As a proof-of-concept, the researchers connected the supercapacitor with a solar cell, delivering an efficient, washable and self-powering smart fabric that overcomes the key drawbacks of existing e-textile energy storage technologies.

A new study by Brown University shows that graphene sheets can block the signals mosquitoes use to identify a potential blood 'donor', which may enable a new chemical-free approach to mosquito bite prevention.

The researchers showed that multilayer graphene can provide a two-fold defense against mosquito bites. The ultra-thin yet strong material acts as a barrier that mosquitoes are unable to bite through. At the same time, experiments showed that graphene also blocks chemical signals mosquitoes use to sense that a blood meal is near, blunting their urge to bite in the first place. The findings suggest that clothing with a graphene lining could be an effective mosquito barrier, the researchers say.

Chinese researchers from the Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, have developed a new type of graphene porous fibers decorated with nanoballs and high gauge factors to improve the sensitivity of wearable sensors. The team produced a structural design to reduce the contact area between the graphene and polymer to enhance sensitivity.

The team explained that wearable textile strain sensors, perceiving and responding to human stimuli, are essential parts of wearable electronics. But subtle strains detection on human bodies is still limited to low sensitivity within current sensors.

Versarien recently shared it has signed a letter of intent with its textile collaboration partner to launch sportswear containing Versarien's graphene ink technology.

Versarien said the letter is non-binding, covering the intention of Versarien and the undisclosed Asia-headquartered company partner to "enter into a formal commercial relationship regarding an initial launch of high performance sportswear".

First Graphene (FGR) recently announced that is now shipping its PureGRAPH product, having received formal approvals from both NICNAS and REACH earlier in 2019. Product sales have been shipped from the Henderson facility to clients in Ireland, the UK and Germany for product development programmes.

In addition, FGR stated that research work undertaken by a number of institutions has identified that the addition of graphene to polyurethane elastomers provides very useful fire retardancy qualities. This is in addition to other well-known benefits that come with the addition of graphene. Most of this work is understood to be at bench scale in laboratories.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge and Jiangnan University in China have developed graphene-enhanced wearable electronic components incorporated directly into fabrics. The devices could be used for flexible circuits, healthcare monitoring, energy conversion, and other applications.

The researchers have shown how graphene and other related materials can be directly incorporated into fabrics to produce charge storage elements such as capacitors, paving the way to textile-based power supplies which are washable, flexible and comfortable to wear.

The Graphene Flagship has announced a call out for new industrial partners to bring specific industrial and technology transfer competences or capabilities that complement the present GF consortium in the next core project (Core 3).

The Graphene Flagship is looking for companies with specific expertise - for example MRAM tools developers to leverage solutions for graphene-spintronic stacks, developers of graphene related materials based laser systems and instrumentations for coherent Raman imaging, makers of graphene-based fibers, yarns and textiles, automotive companies with expertise in fuel-cells, industrial graphene-based supercapacitors makers and more.