Flexible supercapacitor patch adds power to textile wearables

News

Researchers in the US have reported a new design of a flexible wearable supercapacitor patch, an advance that brings wearable textile technology closer to market.

A flexible textile supercapacitor patch, created by Drexel University researchers, can power a microcontroller and wirelessly transmit temperature data for nearly two hours without a recharge
A flexible textile supercapacitor patch, created by Drexel University researchers, can power a microcontroller and wirelessly transmit temperature data for nearly two hours without a recharge - Drexel University

The development, by Drexel University’s College of Engineering, in partnership with a team at Accenture Labs, is detailed in Journal of Materials Chemistry A.

The flexible, wearable supercapacitor patch uses MXene to create a textile-based supercapacitor that can charge in minutes and power an Arduino microcontroller temperature sensor and radio communication of data for almost two hours.

“This is a significant development for wearable technology,” said Yury Gogotsi, PhD, Distinguished University and Bach professor in Drexel’s College of Engineering, who co-authored the study. “To fully integrate technology into fabric, we must also be able to seamlessly integrate its power source - our invention shows the path forward for textile energy storage devices.”

The study is said to build on previous research that looked at durability, electric conductivity and energy storage capacity of MXene-functionalised textiles that did not push to optimise the textile for powering electronics beyond passive devices such as LED lights.

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wearable supercapacitor patch