Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Wearonics (Developing Stretchable Conductive Fibres and their Implementations in Wearable Electronics)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2017-04-01 do 2019-03-31
To address the challenge, I have formulated an innovative and interdisciplinary project based on my research experience to develop stretchable conductive yarns (SCY) using silver nanowires (AgNW) and spandex yarn. After developing SCYs, I have brought together diverse - yet complementary - academic and industrial experts to utilize SCYs in wireless communication systems, pervasive computing, disabled friendly smart textiles, health monitoring systems, and electro muscle stimulation technologies.
This Marie Curie fellowship allowed me to acquire new expertise in multiple disciplines, develop international collaborations, and build complementary partnerships between academia and industry, which will enable me to enhance my independence as a researcher in the wearonics field. The successful completion of this timely and innovative project resulted in an advanced material that will contribute to the competitiveness of Europe in the wearonics field.
Project details can be found in https://alpergurarslan.wixsite.com/wearonics/wearonics and www.wearonics.com.tr
SCY was used for measuring respiration and body motions, touch based sensors to control LEDs and wirelessly control toy robots. It could be heated with an applied voltage for using in disabled individuals friendly clothing. Our results show that applying 5.8 V can heat the SCY upto 98 ˚C.
SCY can be used in many other applications such as stretchable and wearable screens. Our future work will move on in this direction.
Industrial production of SCY could have a great impact on the competitiveness of Europe in the Stretchable and Wearable Electronics Industry. We have received research funding to proceed in this direction. We are planning to successfully produce the commercial prototype of SCY. We have already filled a patent application describing this process.
We have published 2 research publications in peer reviewed journals. These papers are;
1) A Gurarslan. “Wireless controlling of a toy robot using silver nanowire coated spandex yarns” Journal of Industrial Textiles. First Published April 22, 2018
2) A Gurarslan, B Ozdemir, IH Bayat, MB Yelten, G Karabulut Kurt. “Silver Nanowire Coated Knitted Wool Fabric for Wearable Electronic Applications” Journal of Engineered Fibers and Fabrics. Accepted for Publication 2019
We are planning to publish at least one more peer reviewed research paper including the results of industrial scale production of SCY.
We have participated to the following conferences:
- “IDATECH EXHIBITION” Berlin, GERMANRY. April 2018. (Poster Presentation)
- “Association of Universities for Textiles” June 2018, Istanbul, TURKEY.
- “Advances in organic and hybrid electronic materials” Dubrovnik, CROATIA. March 2019.
- “Association of Universities for Textiles” Brussels, BELGIUM. June 2019.
- “National Cukurova Textile Congress”, Adana, TURKEY. September 2019.
We have been training 7 undergraduate students. Two of them developed a wearable antenna in their undergraduate final thesis and successfully graduated. We have been working with a master student to develop a stretchable and wearable screen. I have become a co-advisor of a PhD student. I have been teaching undergraduate courses and offered 3 new courses to our department.
Based on our scientific results, this project contributes to the competitiveness of Europe in the wearable electronics field and holds great potential for economic impact.