Inspired by the silk-spinning processes of spiders, scientists at the National University of Singapore have developed a way to produce soft fibres that are strong, stretchable and electrically conductive, offering many potential wearable technology applications.
THE RESEARCH: A team of researchers led by Assistant Professor Tan Swee Ching from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering in the NUS College of Design and Engineering, created one-dimensional (1D) functional soft fibres that are strong, stretchable and electrically conductive by identifying two unique steps in spider silk formation that they could mimic.
- The obtained mechanically soft fibres benefit from elastic molecular chain networks and can be configured as wearable electronics for self-sensing and self-powering applications.
- Recreating the spider silk fibrillation process under ambient conditions provide insight into developing facile and energy-saving spinning technologies to afford a more sustainable future with abundant functional soft fibres.
- These fibres can also be easily reused to produce new fibres.
- The findings have been reported in the journal Nature Electronics.
FUNCTIONAL POSSIBILITIES: Among the many possibilities, these functional fibres can be incorporated into a strain-sensing glove for gaming purposes, and a smart face mask to monitor breathing status for conditions such as obstructive sleep apnea.
- When connected to a computer interface, the glove could successfully detect human hand gestures and let a user play simple games.
- The fibres could also detect changes in electrical signals that could be used as a form of communication like Morse code.
In addition, these fibres could sense temperature changes, a property that can potentially be capitalised on to protect robots from environments with extreme temperatures. - A comparison with other current fibre-spinning methods revealed that this new spider-inspired method consumes significantly lower amounts of energy and requires lower volume of chemicals.
- The research team will continue to work on improving the sustainability of the soft fibres throughout its production cycle, from the raw materials to recycling the final product.
WHAT THEY SAID:
Fabrication of 1D soft fibres with seamless integration of all-round functionalities is much more difficult to achieve and requires complicated fabrication or multiple post-treatment processes. This innovative method fulfils an unmet need to create a simple yet efficient spinning approach to produce functional 1D soft fibres that simultaneously possess unified mechanical and electrical functionalities.
— Tan Swee Ching
Assistant Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering
NUS College of Design and Engineering
