Category Archives: wearable electronics

Stay warm with smart fabric that can heat up by 30°C after 10 minutes exposure to the sun

Presumably this material would be used for clothing worn in much colder climates than what we experience in the Pacific Northwest where even during the winter a hike of 30°C would have you sweating like a pig.

A January 23, 2025 news item on phys.org announces the latest news about the fast-heating smart fabric,

A new type of cloth developed by researchers at the University of Waterloo [Ontario, Canada] can heat up when exposed to the sun thanks to innovative nanoparticles embedded in the fabric’s fibers. This advance represents an innovative and environmentally friendly option for staying warm in the winter.

A demonstration of how stretchy the smart fabric is. The fabric can stretch out by as much as five times its original shape. (University of Waterloo)

A January 23, 2025 University of Waterloo news release, which originated the news item, delves further into heated winter clothes and their latest collaborative research, Note: A link has been removed,

Wearable heated clothing typically relies on metals or ceramic heating elements to heat up and an external power source, which could pose safety risks for users.

This new cloth incorporates conductive polymer nanoparticles that can heat up to 30degrees Celsius when exposed to sunlight. The design requires no external power and can also change colour to visually monitor temperature fluctuations.

“The magic behind the temperature-sensitive colour change lies in the combination of nanoparticles embedded in the polymer fibres,” said Yuning Li, a professor in Waterloo’s Department of Chemical Engineering, and part of the research team that includes Chaoxia Wang and Fangqing Ge from the College of Textile Science and Engineering at Jiangnan University in China.

“The nanoparticles are activated by sunlight, enabling the fabric to absorb heat and convert it into warmth.”

The fibre is created using a scalable wet-spinning process, combining polyaniline and polydopamine nanoparticles to enhance light absorption and improve photothermal conversion. Thermoplastic polyurethane serves as the spinning matrix, while thermochromic dyes enable the reversible color-changing feature. The resultant fiber can be woven into fabric for wearable applications.

n addition to its temperature-changing capability, the Waterloo researcher’s new fabric can stretch out by as much as five times its original shape and withstand as much as two-dozen washings while still maintaining its function and appearance. Its reversible colour-changing ability provides a built-in temperature monitoring feature to ensure the wearer’s safety and convenience.

“We prioritized durability, ensuring the fabric could withstand repeated use and environmental exposure while maintaining its innovative properties,” said Li.

The Waterloo team is exploring more cost-effective alternatives to polydopamine to make the smart fabric technology more accessible. Future developments will focus on scaling the production process and reducing costs without compromising on the fabric’s innovative properties.

The fabric’s potential applications include aiding in cold rescue situations and solar-powered pet clothing to help keep them comfortable when outside during the winter.

The study was recently published in the Journal of Advanced Composites and Hybrid Materials.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Color tunable photo-thermochromic elastic fiber for flexible wearable heater by Fangqing Ge, Jun Peng, Jialing Tan, Weidong Yu, Yuning Li, & Chaoxia Wang. Journal of Advanced Composites and Hybrid Materials Volume 7, article number 173, (2024) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42114-024-00994-4 Published: 11 October 2024

This paper is behind a paywall.

For some earlier work from this international collaboration, I have a November 1, 2024 posting about energy harvesting fabric.

‘SWEET’ (smart, wearable, and eco-friendly electronic textiles)

I always appreciate a good acronym and this one is pretty good. (From my perspective, a good acronym is memorable and doesn’t involve tortured terminology such as CRISPR-Cas9, which stands for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-CRISPR-associated protein 9).

On to ‘SWEET’ and a January 2, 2025 news item on ScienceDaily announcing a new UK study on wearable e-textiles,

A research team led by the University of Southampton and UWE Bristol [University of the West of England Bristol] has shown wearable electronic textiles (e-textiles) can be both sustainable and biodegradable.

A new study, which also involved the universities of Exeter, Cambridge, Leeds and Bath, describes and tests a new sustainable approach for fully inkjet-printed, eco-friendly e-textiles named ‘Smart, Wearable, and Eco-friendly Electronic Textiles’, or ‘SWEET’.

A January 2, 2025 University of Southampton press release (also on EurekAlert), which originated the news item, describes e-textiles and how this latest work represents a step forward in making them environmentally friendly,

E-textiles are those with embedded electrical components, such as sensors, batteries or lights. They might be used in fashion, for performance sportwear, or for medical purposes as garments that monitor people’s vital signs.

Such textiles need to be durable, safe to wear and comfortable, but also, in an industry which is increasingly concerned with clothing waste, they need to be kind to the environment when no longer required.

Professor Nazmul Karim at the University of Southampton’s Winchester School of Art, who led the study, explains: “Integrating electrical components into conventional textiles complicates the recycling of the material because it often contains metals, such as silver, that don’t easily biodegrade. Our potential ecofriendly approach for selecting sustainable materials and manufacturing overcomes this, enabling the fabric to decompose when it is disposed of.”

The team’s design has three layers, a sensing layer, a layer to interface with the sensors and a base fabric. It uses a textile called Tencel for the base, which is made from renewable wood and is biodegradable. The active electronics in the design are made from graphene, along with a polymer called PEDOT: PSS. These conductive materials are precision inkjet-printed onto the fabric.

The researchers tested samples of the material for continuous monitoring of human physiology using five volunteers. Swatches of the fabric, connected to monitoring equipment, were attached to gloves worn by the participants. Results confirmed the material can effectively and reliably measure both heart rate and temperature at the industry standard level.

Dr Shaila Afroj, an Associate Professor of Sustainable Materials from the University of Exeter and a co-author of the study, highlighted the importance of this performance: “Achieving reliable, industry-standard monitoring with eco-friendly materials is a significant milestone. It demonstrates that sustainability doesn’t have to come at the cost of functionality, especially in critical applications like healthcare.”

The project team then buried the e-textiles in soil to measure its biodegradable properties. After four months, the fabric had lost 48 percent of its weight and 98 percent of its strength, suggesting relatively rapid and also effective decomposition. Furthermore, a life cycle assessment revealed the graphene-based electrodes had up to 40 times less impact on the environment than standard electrodes.

Marzia Dulal from UWE Bristol, a Commonwealth PhD Scholar and the first author of the study, highlighted the environmental impact: “Our life cycle analysis shows that graphene-based e-textiles have a fraction of the environmental footprint compared to traditional electronics. This makes them a more responsible choice for industries looking to reduce their ecological impact.”

The ink-jet printing process is also a more sustainable approach for e-textile fabrications, depositing exact numbers of functional materials on textiles as needed, with almost no material waste and less use of water and energy than conventional screen printing.

Professor Karim concludes: “ Amid rising pollution from landfill sites, our study helps to address a lack of research in the area of biodegradation of e-textiles. These materials will become increasingly more important in our lives, particularly in the area of healthcare, so it’s really important we consider how to make them more eco-friendly, both in their manufacturing and disposal.”

The researchers hope they can now move forward with designing wearable garments made from SWEET for potential use in the healthcare sector, particularly in the area of early detection and prevention of heart-related diseases that 640 million people (source: BHF [British Heart Foundation]) suffer from worldwide.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Sustainable, Wearable, and Eco-Friendly Electronic Textiles by Marzia Dulal, Harsh Rajesh Mansukhlal Modha, Jingqi Liu, Md Rashedul Islam, Chris Carr, Tawfique Hasan, Robin Michael Statham Thorn, Shaila Afroj, Nazmul Karim. Energy & Enviornmental Materials DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/eem2.12854 First published: 18 December 2024

This paper is open access.

Early morning run could power your electrical wearables

I don’t think this is going to be happening tomorrow but here’s a relatively recent news item on ScienceDaily from August 22, 2024 about bioenergy harvesting and wearable technology,

Your early morning run could soon help harvest enough electricity to power your wearable devices, thanks to new nanotechnology developed at the University of Surrey [UK].

Surrey’s Advanced Technology Institute (ATI) has developed highly energy-efficient, flexible nanogenerators, which demonstrate a 140-fold increase in power density when compared to conventional nanogenerators. ATI researchers believe that this development could pave the way for nano-devices that are as efficient as today’s solar cells.

An August 21, 2024 University of Surrey press release (also on EurekAlert but published August 22, 2024), which originated the news item, provides more information about the research,

Surrey’s devices can convert small amounts of everyday mechanical energy, like motion, into a significantly higher amount of electrical power, similar to how an amplifier boosts sound in an electronic system. For instance, if a traditional nanogenerator produces 10 milliwatts of power, this new technology could increase that output to over 1,000 milliwatts, making it suitable for energy harvesting in various everyday applications. 

ATI’s nanogenerator works like a relay team – instead of one electrode (the runner) passing energy (charge) by itself. Each runner collects a baton (charge), adds more and then passes all batons to the next runner, boosting the overall energy that is collected in a process called the charge regeneration effect. 

Lead author of the study from the University of Surrey, Md Delowar Hussain, said: 

“The dream of nanogenerators is to capture and use energy from everyday movements, like your morning run, mechanical vibrations, ocean waves or opening a door. The key innovation with our nanogenerator is that we’ve fine-tuned the technology with 34 tiny energy collectors using a laser technique that can be scaled up for manufacture to increase energy efficiency further. 

“What’s really exciting is that our little device with high energy harvesting density could one day rival the power of solar panels and could be used to run anything from self-powered sensors to smart home systems that run without ever needing a battery change.” 

The device is a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) – a device that can capture and turn the energy from simple, everyday movements into electricity. They work by using materials that become electrically charged when they come into contact and then separate – similar to when you rub a balloon on your hair, and it sticks due to static electricity.  

Dr Bhaskar Dudem, co-author of the study from the University of Surrey, said:  

“We are soon going to launch a company focused on self-powered, non-invasive healthcare sensors using triboelectric technology. Innovations like these will enable us to drive new spin-out activities in sustainable health tech, improve sensitivity, and emphasize industrial scalability.” 

Professor Ravi Silva, co-author of the study and Director of the Advanced Technology Institute at the University of Surrey, said: 

“With the ever-increasing technology around us, it is predicted that we will have over 50 billion Internet of Things (IoT) devices in the next few years that will need energy to be powered. Local green energy solutions are needed, and this could be a convenient wireless technology that harnesses energy from any mechanical movements to power small devices. It offers an opportunity for the scientific and engineering community to find innovative and sustainable solutions to global challenges.” 

“We are incredibly excited about the potential of these nanogenerators to transform how we think about energy. You could also imagine these devices being used in IoT-based self-powered smart systems like autonomous wireless operations, security monitoring, and smart home systems, or even for supporting dementia patients, an area in which the University of Surrey has great expertise.” 

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Exploring charge regeneration effect in interdigitated array electrodes-based TENGs for a more than 100-fold enhanced power density by Md Delowar Hussain, Bhaskar Dudem, Dimitar I. Kutsarov, S. Ravi P. Silva. Nano Energy Volume 130, November 2024, 110112 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nanoen.2024.110112 Available online 13 August 2024, Version of Record 21 August 2024

This paper is open access under a Creative Commons license.

Converting body heat into electricity with smart fabric

This bioenergy harvesting story is from the University of Waterloo (Ontario, Canada), where its researchers were part of an international collaboration. From an August 14, 2023 news item on ScienceDaily,

Imagine a coat that captures solar energy to keep you cozy on a chilly winter walk, or a shirt that can monitor your heart rate and temperature.Picture clothing athletes can wear to track their performance without the need for bulky battery packs.

University of Waterloo researchers have developed a smart fabric with these remarkable capabilities.

The fabric has the potential for energy harvesting, health monitoring, and movement tracking applications.

An August 14, 2024 University of Waterloo news release (also on EurekAlert), which originated the news item, provides more information about the new fabric and the research team, Note: A link has been removed,

The new fabric developed by a Waterloo research team can convert body heat and solar energy into electricity, potentially enabling continuous operation with no need for an external power source. Different sensors monitoring temperature, stress, and more can be integrated into the material.

It can detect temperature changes and a range of other sensors to monitor pressure, chemical composition, and more. One promising application is smart face masks that can track breath temperature and rate and detect chemicals in breath to help identify viruses, lung cancer, and other conditions.

“We have developed a fabric material with multifunctional sensing capabilities and self-powering potential,” said Yuning Li, a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering. “This innovation brings us closer to practical applications for smart fabrics.”

Unlike current wearable devices that often depend on external power sources or frequent recharging, this breakthrough research has created a novel fabric which is more stable, durable, and cost-effective than other fabrics on the market. 

This research, conducted in collaboration with Professor Chaoxia Wang and PhD student Jun Peng from the College of Textile Science and Engineering at Jiangnan University, showcases the potential of integrating advanced materials such as MXene and conductive polymers with cutting-edge textile technologies to advance smart fabrics for wearable technology.

Li, director of Waterloo’s Printable Electronic Materials Lab, highlighted the significance of this advancement, which is the latest in the university’s suite of technologies disrupting health boundaries.

“AI technology is evolving rapidly, offering sophisticated signal analysis for health monitoring, food and pharmaceutical storage, environmental monitoring, and more. However, this progress relies on extensive data collection, which conventional sensors, often bulky, heavy, and costly, cannot meet,” Li said. “Printed sensors, including those embedded in smart fabrics, are ideal for continuous data collection and monitoring. This new smart fabric is a step forward in making these applications practical.”

The next phase of research will focus on further enhancing the fabric’s performance and integrating it with electronic components in collaboration with electrical and computer engineers. Future developments may include a smartphone app to track and transmit data from the fabric to healthcare professionals, enabling real-time, non-invasive health monitoring and everyday use.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

MXene-based thermoelectric fabric integrated with temperature and strain sensing for health monitoring by Jun Peng, Fangqing Ge, Weiyi Han, Tao Wu, Jinglei Tang, Yuning Li, Chaoxia Wang. Journal of Materials Science & Technology Volume 212, 20 March 2025, Pages 272-280

This paper is behind a paywall but you will be able to read snippets in a preview.

‘Jelly’ batteries

Caption: Researchers have developed soft, stretchable ‘jelly batteries’ that could be used for wearable devices or soft robotics, or even implanted in the brain to deliver drugs or treat conditions such as epilepsy. Credit: University of Cambridge

A July 18, 2024 news item on Nanowerk announces bioinspried stretchy batteries from the University of Cambridge,

Researchers have developed soft, stretchable ‘jelly batteries’ that could be used for wearable devices or soft robotics, or even implanted in the brain to deliver drugs or treat conditions such as epilepsy.

The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, took their inspiration from electric eels, which stun their prey with modified muscle cells called electrocytes.

Like electrocytes, the jelly-like materials developed by the Cambridge researchers have a layered structure, like sticky Lego, that makes them capable of delivering an electric current.

A July 17, 2024 University of Cambridge press release (also on EurekAlert), which originated the news item, offers more details,

The self-healing jelly batteries can stretch to over ten times their original length without affecting their conductivity – the first time that such stretchability and conductivity has been combined in a single material. The results are reported in the journal Science Advances.

The jelly batteries are made from hydrogels: 3D networks of polymers that contain over 60% water. The polymers are held together by reversible on/off interactions that control the jelly’s mechanical properties.

The ability to precisely control mechanical properties and mimic the characteristics of human tissue makes hydrogels ideal candidates for soft robotics and bioelectronics; however, they need to be both conductive and stretchy for such applications.

“It’s difficult to design a material that is both highly stretchable and highly conductive, since those two properties are normally at odds with one another,” said first author Stephen O’Neill, from Cambridge’s Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry. “Typically, conductivity decreases when a material is stretched.”

“Normally, hydrogels are made of polymers that have a neutral charge, but if we charge them, they can become conductive,” said co-author Dr Jade McCune, also from the Department of Chemistry. “And by changing the salt component of each gel, we can make them sticky and squish them together in multiple layers, so we can build up a larger energy potential.”

Conventional electronics use rigid metallic materials with electrons as charge carriers, while the jelly batteries use ions to carry charge, like electric eels.

The hydrogels stick strongly to each other because of reversible bonds that can form between the different layers, using barrel-shaped molecules called cucurbiturils that are like molecular handcuffs. The strong adhesion between layers provided by the molecular handcuffs allows for the jelly batteries to be stretched, without the layers coming apart and crucially, without any loss of conductivity.

The properties of the jelly batteries make them promising for future use in biomedical implants, since they are soft and mould to human tissue. “We can customise the mechanical properties of the hydrogels so they match human tissue,” said Professor Oren Scherman, Director of the Melville Laboratory for Polymer Synthesis, who led the research in collaboration with Professor George Malliaras from the Department of Engineering. “Since they contain no rigid components such as metal, a hydrogel implant would be much less likely to be rejected by the body or cause the build-up of scar tissue.”

In addition to their softness, the hydrogels are also surprisingly tough. They can withstand being squashed without permanently losing their original shape, and can self-heal when damaged.

The researchers are planning future experiments to test the hydrogels in living organisms to assess their suitability for a range of medical applications.

The research was funded by the European Research Council and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Oren Scherman is a Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Highly stretchable dynamic hydrogels for soft multilayer electronics by Stephen J. K. O’Neill, Zehuan Huang, Xiaoyi Chen, Renata L. Sala, Jade A. McCune, George G. Malliaras, and Oren A. Scherman. Science Advances 17 Jul 2024 Vol 10, Issue 29 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adn5142

This paper appears to be open access.

Painless, wearable patch for continuous smartphone monitoring of critical health data from Canadian researchers

A June 18, 2024 McMaster University news release also on EurekAlert and on the University of Waterloo news website) by Wade Hemsworth describes the ‘Wearable Aptalyzer’, Note: A link has been removed,

Researchers at two Ontario universities have developed a pain-free, wearable sensor that can continuously monitor levels of blood sugar, lactates and other critical health indicators for weeks at a time, sending results to a smartphone or other device.

The Wearable Aptalyzer, created by a team featuring researchers from McMaster University and the University of Waterloo, uses an array of tiny hydrogel needles that penetrate just deeply enough to reach the interstitial fluid beneath the skin, but not far enough to reach the blood vessels or nerves.

The patch gathers and sends information about markers in the fluid to an electronic device such as a smart phone, creating an ongoing record of patterns in the rise and fall of critical biomarkers.

Once developed for clinical use, it will allow health professionals to access current medical information that today is available only retrospectively after blood tests and lab work.

The new technology could make monitoring the markers of specific diseases and conditions as simple as tracking pulse, blood pressure and other vital signs. The researchers describe the work in a new paper published today [version of record published May 16, 2024] in the journal Advanced Materials.

“This technology can provide real-time information about both chronic and acute health conditions, allowing caregivers to act more quickly and with greater certainty when they see trouble,” says one of the paper’s two corresponding authors, McMaster’s Leyla Soleymani,  professor of Engineering Physics who holds the Canada Research Chair in Miniaturized Biomedical Devices.

“The Wearable Aptalyzer is a general platform, meaning it can measure any biomarkers of interest, ranging from diabetes to cardiac biomarkers,” says corresponding author Mahla Poudineh, an assistant professor and director of the IDEATION Lab in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Waterloo. “Continuous health monitoring doesn’t just help catch diseases early and track how treatments are working. It also helps us understand how diseases happen, filling in important gaps in our knowledge that need attention.”

A user would apply and remove the patch much like a small bandage held in place with barely visible, soft hooks. The convenience is likely to appeal to diabetics and others who test themselves by drawing samples of blood or by using solid monitoring patches with metal needles that penetrate deeper and rely on less specific electrodes.

The greatest promise of the technology, though, may lie in its ability to produce weeks’ worth of meaningful results at a time, and to transmit data to electronic devices experts can read without sophisticated equipment.

Among the other potential applications, the Wearable Aptalyzer can make it possible to read and send data that signals cardiac events in real time, making it a potentially valuable tool for monitoring patients in ambulances and emergency rooms, and during treatment. The same technology can readily be adapted to monitor the progress and treatment of many chronic illnesses, including cancers, the researchers say.

The technology holds promise for improving care use in remote care settings, such as northern Indigenous communities set far from hospitals, or on space flights. Data from the Wearable Aptalyzer can signal trouble before symptoms become apparent, making it more likely patients can receive timely care.

The next steps in developing the technology for broad use include human trials and regulatory approvals. The researchers are seeking partners to help commercialize the technology.

The paper’s lead authors are Fatemeh Bakhshandeh of McMaster and Hanjia Zheng of Waterloo. Together with Soleymani and Poudineh, their co-authors are Waterloo’s Sadegh Sadeghzadeh, Irfani Ausri, Fatemeh Keyvani, Fasih Rahman, Joe Quadrilatero, and Juewen Liu, and McMaster’s Nicole Barra, Payel Sen, and Jonathan Schertzer.

Caption: The monitoring patch as compared to a 25-cent coin for scale. Credit: University of Waterloo

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Wearable Aptalyzer Integrates Microneedle and Electrochemical Sensing for In Vivo Monitoring of Glucose and Lactate in Live Animals by Fatemeh Bakhshandeh, Hanjia Zheng, Nicole G. Barra, Sadegh Sadeghzadeh, Irfani Ausri, Payel Sen, Fatemeh Keyvani, Fasih Rahman, Joe Quadrilatero, Juewen Liu, Jonathan D. Schertzer, Leyla Soleymani, Mahla Poudineh. Advanced Materials 2313743 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202313743 First online version of record published: 16 May 2024

This paper is open access.

Better (safer, cheaper) battery invented for wearable tech

A June 5, 2024 news item on phys.org announces new research into ‘aqueous’ wearable batteries,

Researchers have developed a safer, cheaper, better performing and more flexible battery option for wearable devices. A paper describing the “recipe” for their new battery type was published in the journal Nano Research Energy on June 3 [2024].

Fitness trackers. Smart watches. Virtual-reality headsets. Even smart clothing and implants. Wearable smart devices are everywhere these days. But for greater comfort, reliability and longevity, these devices will require greater levels of flexibility and miniaturization of their energy storage mechanisms, which are often frustratingly bulky, heavy and fragile. On top of this, any improvements cannot come at the expense of safety.

As a result, in recent years, a great deal of battery research has focused on the development of “micro” flexible energy storage devices, or MFESDs. A range of different structures and electrochemical foundations have been explored, and among them, aqueous micro batteries offer many distinct advantages.

A June 5, 2024 Tsinghua University press release on EurekAlert, which originated the news item, provides more detail,

Aqueous batteries—those that use a water-based solution as an electrolyte (the medium that allows transport of ions in the battery and thus creating an electric circuit) are nothing new. They have been around since the late 19th century. However, their energy density—or the amount of energy contained in the battery per unit of volume—is too low for use in things like electric vehicles as they would take up too much space. Lithium-ion batteries are far more appropriate for such uses.

At the same time, aqueous batteries are much less flammable, and thus safer, than lithium-ion batteries. They are also much cheaper. As a result of this more robust safety and low cost, aqueous options have increasingly been explored as one of the better options for MFESDs. These are termed aqueous micro batteries, or just AMBs.

“Up till now, sadly, AMBs have not lived up to their potential,” said Ke Niu, a materials scientist with the Guangxi Key Laboratory of Optical and Electronic Materials and Devices at the Guilin University of Technology—one of the lead researchers on the team. “To be able to be used in a wearable device, they need to withstand a certain degree of real-world bending and twisting. But most of those explored so far fail in the face of such stress.”

To overcome this, any fractures or failure points in an AMB would need to be self-healing following such stress. Unfortunately, the self-healing AMBs that have been developed so far have tended to depend on metallic compounds as the carriers of charge in the battery’s electric circuit. This has the undesirable side-effect of strong reaction between the metal’s ions and the materials that the electrodes (the battery’s positive and negative electrical conductors) are made out of. This in turn reduces the battery’s reaction rate (the speed at which the electrochemical reactions at the heart of any battery take place), drastically limiting performance.

“So we started investigating the possibility of non-metallic charge carriers, as these would not suffer from the same difficulties from interaction with the electrodes,” added Junjie Shi, another leading member of the team and a researcher with the School of Physics and Center zfor Nanoscale Characterization & Devices (CNCD) at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan.

The research team alighted upon ammonium ions, derived from abundantly available ammonium salts, as the optimal charge carriers. They are far less corrosive than other options and have a wide electrochemical stability window.

“But ammonium ions are not the only ingredient in the recipe needed to make our batteries self-healing,” said Long Zhang, the third leading member of the research team, also at CNCD.

For that, the team incorporated the ammonium salts into a hydrogel—a polymer material that can absorb and retain a large amount of water without disturbing its structure. This gives hydrogels impressive flexibility—delivering precisely the sort of self-healing character needed. Gelatin is probably the most well-known hydrogel, although the researchers in this case opted for a polyvinyl alcohol hydrogel (PVA) for its great strength and low cost.

To optimize compatibility with the ammonium electrolyte, titanium carbide—a ‘2D’ nanomaterial with only a single layer of atoms—was chosen for the anode (the negative electrode) material for its excellent conductivity. Meanwhile manganese dioxide, already commonly used in dry cell batteries, was woven into a carbon nanotube matrix (again to improve conductivity) for the cathode (the positive electrode).

Testing of the prototype self-healing battery showed it exhibited excellent energy density, power density, cycle life, flexibility, and self-healing even after ten self-healing cycles.

The team now aims to further develop and optimise their prototype in preparation for commercial production.


About Nano Research Energy

Nano Research Energy is launched by Tsinghua University Press and exclusively available via SciOpen, aiming at being an international, open-access and interdisciplinary journal. We will publish research on cutting-edge advanced nanomaterials and nanotechnology for energy. It is dedicated to exploring various aspects of energy-related research that utilizes nanomaterials and nanotechnology, including but not limited to energy generation, conversion, storage, conservation, clean energy, etc. Nano Research Energy will publish four types of manuscripts, that is, Communications, Research Articles, Reviews, and Perspectives in an open-access form.

About SciOpen

SciOpen is a professional open access resource for discovery of scientific and technical content published by the Tsinghua University Press and its publishing partners, providing the scholarly publishing community with innovative technology and market-leading capabilities. SciOpen provides end-to-end services across manuscript submission, peer review, content hosting, analytics, and identity management and expert advice to ensure each journal’s development by offering a range of options across all functions as Journal Layout, Production Services, Editorial Services, Marketing and Promotions, Online Functionality, etc. By digitalizing the publishing process, SciOpen widens the reach, deepens the impact, and accelerates the exchange of ideas.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

A self-healing aqueous ammonium-ion micro batteries based on PVA-NH4Cl hydrogel electrolyte and MXene-integrated perylene anode by Ke Niu, Junjie Shi, Long Zhang, Yang Yue, Mengjie Wang, Qixiang Zhang, Yanan Ma, Shuyi Mo, Shaofei Li, Wenbiao Li, Li Wen, Yixin Hou, Fei Long, Yihua Gao. Nano Research Energy (2024)DOI: https://doi.org/10.26599/NRE.2024.9120127 Published: 03 June 2024

This paper is open access by means of a “Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.”

Brain-inspired (neuromorphic) wireless system for gathering data from sensors the size of a grain of salt

This is what a sensor the size of a grain of salt looks like,

Caption: The sensor network is designed so the chips can be implanted into the body or integrated into wearable devices. Each submillimeter-sized silicon sensor mimics how neurons in the brain communicate through spikes of electrical activity. Credit: Nick Dentamaro/Brown University

A March 19, 2024 news item on Nanowerk announces this research from Brown University (Rhode Island, US), Note: A link has been removed,

Tiny chips may equal a big breakthrough for a team of scientists led by Brown University engineers.

Writing in Nature Electronics (“An asynchronous wireless network for capturing event-driven data from large populations of autonomous sensors”), the research team describes a novel approach for a wireless communication network that can efficiently transmit, receive and decode data from thousands of microelectronic chips that are each no larger than a grain of salt.

One of the potential applications is for brain (neural) implants,

Caption: Writing in Nature Electronics, the research team describes a novel approach for a wireless communication network that can efficiently transmit, receive and decode data from thousands of microelectronic chips that are each no larger than a grain of salt. Credit: Nick Dentamaro/Brown University

A March 19, 2024 Brown University news release (also on EurekAlert), which originated the news item, provides more detail about the research, Note: Links have been removed,

The sensor network is designed so the chips can be implanted into the body or integrated into wearable devices. Each submillimeter-sized silicon sensor mimics how neurons in the brain communicate through spikes of electrical activity. The sensors detect specific events as spikes and then transmit that data wirelessly in real time using radio waves, saving both energy and bandwidth.

“Our brain works in a very sparse way,” said Jihun Lee, a postdoctoral researcher at Brown and study lead author. “Neurons do not fire all the time. They compress data and fire sparsely so that they are very efficient. We are mimicking that structure here in our wireless telecommunication approach. The sensors would not be sending out data all the time — they’d just be sending relevant data as needed as short bursts of electrical spikes, and they would be able to do so independently of the other sensors and without coordinating with a central receiver. By doing this, we would manage to save a lot of energy and avoid flooding our central receiver hub with less meaningful data.”

This radiofrequency [sic] transmission scheme also makes the system scalable and tackles a common problem with current sensor communication networks: they all need to be perfectly synced to work well.

The researchers say the work marks a significant step forward in large-scale wireless sensor technology and may one day help shape how scientists collect and interpret information from these little silicon devices, especially since electronic sensors have become ubiquitous as a result of modern technology.

“We live in a world of sensors,” said Arto Nurmikko, a professor in Brown’s School of Engineering and the study’s senior author. “They are all over the place. They’re certainly in our automobiles, they are in so many places of work and increasingly getting into our homes. The most demanding environment for these sensors will always be inside the human body.”

That’s why the researchers believe the system can help lay the foundation for the next generation of implantable and wearable biomedical sensors. There is a growing need in medicine for microdevices that are efficient, unobtrusive and unnoticeable but that also operate as part of a large ensembles to map physiological activity across an entire area of interest.

“This is a milestone in terms of actually developing this type of spike-based wireless microsensor,” Lee said. “If we continue to use conventional methods, we cannot collect the high channel data these applications will require in these kinds of next-generation systems.”

The events the sensors identify and transmit can be specific occurrences such as changes in the environment they are monitoring, including temperature fluctuations or the presence of certain substances.

The sensors are able to use as little energy as they do because external transceivers supply wireless power to the sensors as they transmit their data — meaning they just need to be within range of the energy waves sent out by the transceiver to get a charge. This ability to operate without needing to be plugged into a power source or battery make them convenient and versatile for use in many different situations.

The team designed and simulated the complex electronics on a computer and has worked through several fabrication iterations to create the sensors. The work builds on previous research from Nurmikko’s lab at Brown that introduced a new kind of neural interface system called “neurograins.” This system used a coordinated network of tiny wireless sensors to record and stimulate brain activity.

“These chips are pretty sophisticated as miniature microelectronic devices, and it took us a while to get here,” said Nurmikko, who is also affiliated with Brown’s Carney Institute for Brain Science. “The amount of work and effort that is required in customizing the several different functions in manipulating the electronic nature of these sensors — that being basically squeezed to a fraction of a millimeter space of silicon — is not trivial.”

The researchers demonstrated the efficiency of their system as well as just how much it could potentially be scaled up. They tested the system using 78 sensors in the lab and found they were able to collect and send data with few errors, even when the sensors were transmitting at different times. Through simulations, they were able to show how to decode data collected from the brains of primates using about 8,000 hypothetically implanted sensors.

The researchers say next steps include optimizing the system for reduced power consumption and exploring broader applications beyond neurotechnology.

“The current work provides a methodology we can further build on,” Lee said.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the study,

An asynchronous wireless network for capturing event-driven data from large populations of autonomous sensors by Jihun Lee, Ah-Hyoung Lee, Vincent Leung, Farah Laiwalla, Miguel Angel Lopez-Gordo, Lawrence Larson & Arto Nurmikko. Nature Electronics volume 7, pages 313–324 (2024) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-024-01134-y Published: 19 March 2024 Issue Date: April 2024

This paper is behind a paywall.

Prior to this, 2021 seems to have been a banner year for Nurmikko’s lab. There’s this August 12, 2021 Brown University news release touting publication of a then new study in Nature Electronics and I have an April 2, 2021 post, “BrainGate demonstrates a high-bandwidth wireless brain-computer interface (BCI),” touting an earlier 2021 published study from the lab.

Interweave: A multi-sensory show (March 21, 2024 in Vancouver, Canada) where fashion, movement, & music come together though wearable instruments.

Interweave is a free show at The Kent in the gallery in downtown Vancouver, Canada. Here’s more from a Simon Fraser University (SFU) announcement (received via email),

SFU School for the Contemporary Arts (SCA) alumnus, Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi, is hosting Interweave, a multi-sensory show where fashion, movement, and music come together though wearable instruments.

Embrace the fusion of creativity and expression alongside your fellow alumni in a setting that celebrates innovation and the uncharted synergy between fashion, music, and movement. This is a great opportunity to mingle and reconnect with your peers.

Event Details:

Date: March 21, 2024
Time: Doors 7:30pm, Show 8:00pm
Location: The Kent Vancouver, 534 Cambie Street
Free Entry, RSVP required

Interweave is the first event from Fashion x Electronics (FXE), a collective created by Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi, SCA alumnus, composer, and performer, and designer Kayla Yazdi. FXE is an interdisciplinary collective that is building multi-sensory experiences for their community, bridging together a diverse range of disciplines.

This is a 19+ event. ID will be checked at the door.

RSVP Now!

I wasn’t able to discern much more about the event or the Yazdi sisters from their Fashion x Electronics (FXE) website but there is this about Kayla Yazdi on her FXE profile,

Kayla Yazdi

Designer / Co-Producer

Kayla Yazdi is an Iranian-Canadian designer based in Vancouver, Canada. Her upbringing in Iran immersed her in a world of culture, art, and color. Holding a diploma in painting and a bachelor’s degree in design with a specialization in fashion and technology, Kayla has cultivated the skill set that merges her artistic sensibilities with innovative design concepts.

Kayla is dedicated to the creation of “almost” zero-waste garments. With design, technology, and experimentation, Kayla seeks to minimize environmental impacts while delivering unique styles.

Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi’s FXE profile has this,

Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi

Sound Artist / Co-Producer

Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi(b. 1997 Tehran, Iran) is a California/Vancouver-based composer and performer. She writes for hybrid instrumental/electronic ensembles, creates electroacoustic and audiovisual works, and performs electronic music. Kimia explores the unfamiliar familiar while constantly being driven by the concepts of motion, interaction, and growth in both human life and in the sonic world. Being a cross-disciplinary artist, she has actively collaborated on projects evolving around dance, film, and theatre. Kimia’s work has been showcased by organizations such as Iranian Female Composer Association, Music on Main, Western Front, Vancouver New Music, and Media Arts Committee. She has been featured in The New York Times, Georgia Straight, MusicWorks Magazine, Vancouver Sun, and Sequenza 21. Her work has been performed at festivals around the world including Ars Electronica Festival, Festival Ecos Urbanos, Tehran Contemporary Sounds, AudioVisual Frontiers Virtual Exhibition, The New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, Yarn/Wire Institute, Ensemble Evolution, New Music on the Point, wasteLAnd Summer Academy, EQ: Evolution of the String Quartet, Modulus Festival, and SALT New Music Festival. She holds a BFA in Music Composition from Simon Fraser University’s Interdisciplinary School for the Contemporary Arts, having studied with Sabrina Schroeder and Mauricio Pauly. Kimia is currently pursuing her DMA in Music Composition at Stanford University.

For more details about the sisters and the performance, Marilyn R. Wilson has written up a February 21, 2024 interview with both sisters for her Olio blog,

Can you share a little bit about your background, the life, work, experiences that led you to who you are today?
Kayla: I’m a visual artist with a focus on fashion design, and textile development. I like to explore ways to create wearable art with minimal waste produced in the process. I studied painting at Azadehgan School of Art in Iran and fashion design & technology at Wilson School of Design in Vancouver. My interest in fashion is rooted in creating functional art. I enjoy the business aspect of fashion however, I want to push boundaries of how fashion can be seen as art rather than solely as production.

Kimia: I’m a composer of acoustic and electronic music, I perform and build instruments, and a lot of times I combine these components together. Working with various disciplines is also an important part of my practice. I studied piano performance at Tehran Music School before moving to Vancouver to study composition at Simon Fraser University. I am currently a doctorate candidate in music composition at Stanford University. I love electronic music, food, and sports! My family, partner, and friends are a huge part of my life!

You have your premier event called “Interweave” coming up on March 21st at The Kent Gallery in Vancouver. What can guests attending expect this evening?

Kayla & Kimia: Interweave is a multidisciplinary performance that bridges fashion, music, technology, and dance. Our dancers will be performing in garments designed by Kayla, that are embedded with microcontrollers and sensors developed by Kimia. The dancers control various musical parameters through their movements and their interaction with the sensors that are incorporated within the garments. Along with works for movement and dance, there will be a live electronic music performance made for costume-made instruments. So far we have received an amazing amount of support and RSVP’s from the art industry in Vancouver and look forward to welcoming many local creative individuals.

We’d love to know about the team of professionals who are working hard to create this unique experience. 

Kayla & Kimia: We are working with the amazing choreographers/dancers Anya Saugstad and Daria Mikhailiuk. We are thankful for Laleh Zandi’s help for creating a sculpture for one of our instruments which will be performed by Kimia. Celeste Betancur and Richard Lee have been our amazing audio tech assistants. We are very appreciative of everyone involved in FXE’s premiere and can’t wait to showcase our hard work.

I have a bit more about Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi and her work in music from a February 27, 2024 profile on the SFU School for the Contemporary Arts website, Note: Links have been removed,

Please introduce yourself.

I’m a composer of acoustic and electronic music, I perform and build instruments, and a lot of times, I combine these components together. Working with various disciplines is also an important part of my practice. I studied piano performance at Tehran Music School before moving to Vancouver to study composition at Simon Fraser University, graduating from the SCA in 2020. I am currently a doctoral student in music composition at Stanford University, where I spend most of my time.

Tell us about your current studies.

I’m in the third year of the DMA (Doctor of Musical Arts) program at Stanford University. I do the majority of my work at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). I’m currently trying to learn and to experiment as much as possible! The amount of resources and ideas that I have been exposed to during the last couple of years has been quite significant and wonderful. I have been taking courses in subjects that I never thought I would study, from classes in the computer science and the mechanical engineering departments, to ones in education and theatre. I’m grateful to have been given a supportive platform to truly experiment and to learn.

As for my compositions, they are more melodic than before, and that currently makes me happy. I have started to perform more again (piano and electronics), and it makes me question: why did I ever stop…?

Koochakzadeh-Yazdi’s mention of building instruments reminded me of Icelandic musician, Bjork and Biophilia, which was an album, various art projects, and a film (Biophilia Live), which featured a number of musical instruments she created.

Getting back to Interweave, it’ s on March 21, 2024 at The Kent, specifically the gallery, which has,

… 14 foot ceilings boasts 50 track lights with the ability to transform the vacuous hall from candlelight to daylight. The lights are fully dimmable in an array of playful hues, according to your whim.   A full array of DMX Lighting and control systems live alongside the track light system and our recently installed (Vancouvers only) immersive projection system [emphasis mine] is ready for your vision.  This is your show.

I wonder if ‘multi-sensory’ includes an immersive experience.

Don’t forget, you have to RSVP for Interweave, which is free.