MXene-coated yarns as platform technology for e-textiles
| (Nanowerk Spotlight) MXenes – the large family of two-dimensional (2D) transition metal carbides and nitrides – show outstanding physical properties and have found applications ranging from energy storage to medicine and optoelectronics (read more in our MXene primer). | |
| MXenes’ inherently good conductivity and excellent volumetric capacitance makes them a very attractive material for fabricating textile-based, wearable electronics (e-textiles) that can be worn like everyday garments. This requires the fabrication of conductive yarns that can be manufactured by simple and scalable processing and possess mechanical properties that makes them robust enough to be suitable for the wear and tear experienced by everyday textiles. | |
| So far, though, there have been no comprehensive studies investigating the scalability, manufacturability and washability of MXene-based conductive yarns. | |
| Enter Professor Yuri Gogotsi’s Nanomaterials Group at Drexel University – the team that discovered MXenes in 2011. In recent work, reported in Advanced Functional Materials (“Knittable and Washable Multifunctional MXene-Coated Cellulose Yarns”), the group established an approach that combines the versatile chemistry and promising electrical and electrochemical properties of MXenes with commercial cellulose-based yarns. | |
| This is the first study demonstrating highly conductive MXene-based yarns that can be washed and knitted just like conventional yarns – offering a potential platform technology for e-textile-based devices with tunable performance. |
