A team of researchers say they have developed a technique to weave conductive graphene threads into fabric, using those threads as flexible electrodes.
Fully flexible wiring embedded into fabrics, of course, would be an immense breakthrough.
Graphene is material that consists of a single-atom thickness of carbon. It has many interesting characteristics, among them conductivity. Although there are many manufacturers of graphene and many potential industrial applications, it is a material whose future is very much ahead of it.
The researchers, led by Dr. Helena Alves, from the University of Aveiro, Portugal, say they have grown the graphene onto copper foil, and were then able to transfer it from the foil to a polypropylene fiber common in clothing.
According to an article in Engineering and Technology Magazine, the research will be published “soon” in the journal Scientific Reports, a peer-reviewed open access journal published by the Nature Publishing Group.