A team of fiber scientists at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, have created cotton fabric that, they say, can kill bacteria, conduct electricity, ward off malaria, capture harmful gas, and weave transistors into clothing. They explain that cotton, a cellulose-based material, can be controlled one atom at a time. Instead of adding electronics to fabrics, they have converted cotton fibers into electronic components like transistors and thermistors.
Taking advantage of cotton’s irregular topography, the team added conformal coatings of gold nanoparticles, as well as semi-conductive and conductive polymers to tailor the behavior of natural cotton fibers. The layers are very thin, so the flexibility of the cotton fibers is preserved.
The technology may be embedded into shirts to measure heart rate or analyze sweat, sewn into pillows to monitor brain signals or applied to interactive textiles with heating and cooling capabilities.
