UK led team hails graphene smart clothing breakthrough

So-called wearable electronics are currently made by essentially gluing devices to fabrics, which can mean they are too rigid and susceptible to malfunctioning. But the new research - carried out in collaboration with experts from the Universities of Aveiro and Lisbon in Portugal, and CenTexBel in Belgium – integrates electronic devices into the fabric of the material opening up a host of potential applications in every day clothing and healthcare monitoring.

At just one atom thick, graphene is the thinnest substance capable of conducting electricity. It is very flexible and is one of the strongest known materials. The race has been on for scientists and engineers to adapt graphene for the use in wearable electronic devices in recent years.

This new research - published in the scientific journal Flexible Electronics - used existing polypropylene fibres - typically used in a host of commercial applications in the textile industry - to attach the new, graphene-based electronic fibres to create touch-sensor and light-emitting devices.