An Intelligent Garment Made Of Liquid Metal.

Metal has good conductivity, which is an important material for the development of smart clothing. However, the hardness of metal itself is relatively large, and it can not meet the flexible demand of clothing, so it can not be widely used in smart clothing.

Liquid metal is a kind of alloy with low melting point, which can maintain liquid morphology in room temperature. The combination of liquid metal and clothing can create more intelligent clothing.

Tsinghua University's research team has unveiled a new method of producing smart clothing using liquid metal. They can use this method to prepare large area liquid metal circuits on cotton fabrics, and the liquid metal circuit can be folded and stretched with the clothes. On this basis, the research team also designed intelligent clothing system with man-machine interaction, wireless power supply, flexible display and human thermal management.

Traditionally, the fabric is usually made of yarn or knitted or woven fabric. Its surface is rough. This rough interface makes liquid metal hard to adhere to.

Therefore, researchers used screen printing to first cover a layer of polyvinyl acetate (PVAC) film on the surface of cotton cloth. The PVAC film penetrated the gap between the fibers and formed a smooth and smooth interface on the surface of the fabric, and the film had excellent adhesion to liquid metal and could firmly adhere the liquid metal to its surface.

In addition, in this study, the researchers used semi liquid metal slurry (Cu-EGaIn) doped with metallic copper particles. The slurry has high conductivity and high molding ability, so that the circuit structure is very stable even if stretched or folded, and can be quickly adhered to the PVAC film by roller coating.

Finally, in order to improve the stability and waterproof ability of the liquid metal clothing circuit, the researchers covered the Ecoflex film on the surface of the liquid metal circuit to complete the circuit encapsulation.

Researchers showed a series of liquid metal smart clothing based on the technology. The preparation method of the liquid metal smart clothing is simple, without complex and expensive equipment, and can be combined with rigid electronic devices to produce multifunctional, large-area wearable flexible electronic devices, which provides a new way to develop personalized customized smart clothing.