Printed electronics offer a breakthrough in the penetration of information technology into everyday life. The possibility of printing electronic circuits will further promote the spread of the Internet of Things applications. Inks based on graphene have a chance to dominate this technology, as they potentially can be low cost and applied directly on materials like textile and paper. Here we report the environmentally sustainable route of production of graphene ink suitable for screen-printing technology. The use of non-toxic solvent Dihydrolevoglucosenone (Cyrene) significantly speeds up and reduces the cost of the liquid phase exfoliation of graphite. Printing with our ink results in very high conductivity (7.13 × 104 S m−1) devices, which allows us to produce wireless connectivity antenna operational from MHz to tens of GHz, which can be used for wireless data communication and energy harvesting, which brings us very close to the ubiquitous use of printed graphene technology for such applications.
E-textile
consisting of natural fabrics has become a promising material to construct
wearable sensors due to its comfortability and breathability on the
human body. However, the reported fabric-based e-textile materials,
such as graphene-treated cotton, silk, and flax, generally suffer
from the electrical and mechanical instability in long-term wearing.
In particular, fabrics on the human body have to endure heat variation,
moisture evaporation from metabolic activities, and even the immersion
with body sweat. To face the above challenges, here we report a wool-knitted
fabric sensor treated with graphene oxide (GO) dyeing followed by l-ascorbic acid (l-AA) reduction (rGO). This rGO-based
strain sensor is highly stretchable, washable, and durable with rapid
sensing response. It exhibits excellent linearity with more than 20%
elongation and, most importantly, withstand moisture from 30 to 90%
(or even immersed with water) and still maintains good electrical
and mechanical properties. We further demonstrate that, by integrating
this proposed material with the near-field communication (NFC) system,
a batteryless, wireless wearable body movement sensor can be constructed.
This material can find wide use in smart garment applications.
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