Sustainable, wearable, and eco-friendly electronic textiles
Sustainable, wearable, and eco-friendly electronic textiles
Wearable electronic textiles (e-textiles) with embedded electronics offer promising solutions for unobtrusive, real-time health monitoring, enhancing healthcare efficiency. However, their adoption is limited by performance and sustainability challenges in materials, manufacturing, and recycling. This study introduces a sustainable paradigm for the fabrication of fully inkjet-printed Smart, Wearable, and Eco-friendly Electronic Textiles (SWEET) with the first comprehensive assessments of the biodegradability and life cycle assessment (LCA). SWEET addresses existing limitations, enabling concurrent and continuous monitoring of human physiology, including skin surface temperature (at temperature coefficient of resistance, TCR value of ~−4.4% °C−1) and heart rate (~74 beats per minute, bpm) separately and simultaneously like the industry gold standard, using consistent, versatile, and highly efficient inkjet-printed graphene and Poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): poly (styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS)-based wearable e-textiles. Demonstrations with a wearable garment on five human participants confirm the system's capability to monitor their electrocardiogram (ECG) signals and skin temperature. Such sustainable and biodegradable e-textiles decompose by ~48% in weight and lost ~98% strength over 4 months. Life cycle assessment (LCA) reveals that the graphene-based electrode has the lowest climate change impact of ~0.037 kg CO2 eq, 40 times lower than reference electrodes. This approach addresses material and manufacturing challenges, while aligning with environmental responsibility, marking a significant leap forward in sustainable e-textile technology for personalized healthcare management.
e-textiles, graphene, smart textiles, sustainability, wearable electronics
Dulal, Marzia
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Modha, Harsh Rajesh Mansukhlal
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Liu, Jingqi
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Islam, Md Rashedul
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Carr, Chris
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Hasan, Tawfique
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Thorn, Robin Michael Statham
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Afroj, Shaila
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Karim, Nazmul
31555bd6-2dc7-4359-b717-3b2fe223df36
Dulal, Marzia
c07b84a9-c042-4ebc-87b1-3dec64a9b9f1
Modha, Harsh Rajesh Mansukhlal
808dd39d-6142-4ca3-8dd4-9bbadcd3fd51
Liu, Jingqi
15318903-ad58-4dd7-95ee-7bd9944b46d9
Islam, Md Rashedul
cd0df79e-b195-48d7-913a-d9acb409586e
Carr, Chris
4a16796a-054d-4a5b-b6e0-1fc8af1868e2
Hasan, Tawfique
f0737c80-19cd-4e52-be00-aa0c7249ef6f
Thorn, Robin Michael Statham
ab87a90d-6452-4b3f-a886-977e293ea7f3
Afroj, Shaila
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Karim, Nazmul
31555bd6-2dc7-4359-b717-3b2fe223df36
Dulal, Marzia, Modha, Harsh Rajesh Mansukhlal, Liu, Jingqi, Islam, Md Rashedul, Carr, Chris, Hasan, Tawfique, Thorn, Robin Michael Statham, Afroj, Shaila and Karim, Nazmul
(2024)
Sustainable, wearable, and eco-friendly electronic textiles.
Energy and Environmental Materials, [e12854].
(doi:10.1002/eem2.12854).
Abstract
Wearable electronic textiles (e-textiles) with embedded electronics offer promising solutions for unobtrusive, real-time health monitoring, enhancing healthcare efficiency. However, their adoption is limited by performance and sustainability challenges in materials, manufacturing, and recycling. This study introduces a sustainable paradigm for the fabrication of fully inkjet-printed Smart, Wearable, and Eco-friendly Electronic Textiles (SWEET) with the first comprehensive assessments of the biodegradability and life cycle assessment (LCA). SWEET addresses existing limitations, enabling concurrent and continuous monitoring of human physiology, including skin surface temperature (at temperature coefficient of resistance, TCR value of ~−4.4% °C−1) and heart rate (~74 beats per minute, bpm) separately and simultaneously like the industry gold standard, using consistent, versatile, and highly efficient inkjet-printed graphene and Poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): poly (styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS)-based wearable e-textiles. Demonstrations with a wearable garment on five human participants confirm the system's capability to monitor their electrocardiogram (ECG) signals and skin temperature. Such sustainable and biodegradable e-textiles decompose by ~48% in weight and lost ~98% strength over 4 months. Life cycle assessment (LCA) reveals that the graphene-based electrode has the lowest climate change impact of ~0.037 kg CO2 eq, 40 times lower than reference electrodes. This approach addresses material and manufacturing challenges, while aligning with environmental responsibility, marking a significant leap forward in sustainable e-textile technology for personalized healthcare management.
Text
Sustainable Wearable and Eco‐Friendly Electronic Textiles
- Version of Record
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 5 November 2024
e-pub ahead of print date: 18 December 2024
Keywords:
e-textiles, graphene, smart textiles, sustainability, wearable electronics
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 498584
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/498584
ISSN: 2575-0348
PURE UUID: da31bfcc-f7ca-45c5-a09a-fca64c30cf39
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Date deposited: 21 Feb 2025 17:37
Last modified: 22 Feb 2025 03:13
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Contributors
Author:
Marzia Dulal
Author:
Harsh Rajesh Mansukhlal Modha
Author:
Jingqi Liu
Author:
Md Rashedul Islam
Author:
Chris Carr
Author:
Tawfique Hasan
Author:
Robin Michael Statham Thorn
Author:
Shaila Afroj
Author:
Nazmul Karim
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