T-shirt fabric converted into source of electrical power for smartphones
Flexible electronics are the future we are steadily heading towards, we will one day have regular electronics rolled up in our pockets. But before that we’ll need flexible batteries to meet the flexible displays being made these days. To make the future real, researchers at the University of South Carolina have converted a cotton T-shirt fabric into an electrical power source which behaves as a flexible supercapacitor.
The researcher duo of Xiaodong Li and Lihong Bao immersed a piece if cotton fabric in fluoride solution, by drying and baking the soaked cloth at high temperatures, in absences of oxygen, they managed to convert the fabric’s fiber from cellulose to carbon without compromising on the flexibility of the cloth. This flexible material whose electrode performance was further enhanced by applying nanoflowers of manganese oxide behaves as a supercapacitor or a double layer capacitor, capable of storing high amount of electrical charge and is dubbed as carbon textile.
According to the researchers this technique of creating carbon textile is cost effective and eco friendly than any other similar technique, and they also state that the flexible supercapacitors can be stacked up to charge smartphones or flexible electronics.
