Functional Textiles and ApplicationsTextile materials are contributing to many applications, even in areas where fibers might not immediately be expected such as in personal protective equipment, light-weight structural materials, wearable electronics or biomedical products.
Functional Textiles and Applications
Textile materials are contributing to many applications, even in areas where fibers might not immediately be expected such as in personal protective equipment, light-weight structural materials, wearable electronics or biomedical products. Optimization of the textiles for these applications, as well as development of new functional textile applications, are important goals for CTSE. Research happens on different levels, such as the functionalization of fibers (for example to make them antimicrobial), the design of functional textile structures (for example to create hybrid hydrophilic/hydrophobic structures that can guide liquid away from the source), or even to create wearable electronics entirely made from textiles (for example a protective vest with built-in radio antenna). The group has a long history in so-called smart textiles in which smart electronics are combined with textile materials to create all kinds of useful applications and provide a new level of user-interaction that only textiles can provide. A glossary of some of our current research topics is given below.
Textile electroosmotic pumps for active moisture management
Guiding Liquid in Textiles: Electroosmotic Pumps for Targeted Moisture Control
Textile electroosmotic pumps enable electrically driven liquid transport for applications like controlled sweat management in protective clothing and our ongoing research is focusing on optimizing material combination, properties, durability and wearability for integration into garments.
Electrospinning as a new coating technology for various functional applications
Damage resistant composites, fluor-free waterproofing, electrochemical water purification are just several examples of applications that benefit from a new coating technology based on electrospun nanofibers.
Balancing comfort and safety in personal protective clothing
Balancing protection and comfort in personal protective clothing (PPC) requires innovative materials and effective evaluation protocols, crucial for advancing multifunctional designs from military wear to surgical gowns.
Application of textile-based electrodes for ECG monitoring in animals
This work will focus on the development of silver-based textile electrodes to measure a dog's and horse's ECG signals and contrast the results with those obtained using gelled standard AG/AgCl electrodes.
In-house development and characterization of Additive manufacturing technologies for the production of continuous fiber reinforced 3D printed thermoplastic composites allows for the production of intricate, small scale load bearing parts.
