Smart wearable electronic textiles (e-textiles) that can detect and differentiate multiple stimuli, while also collecting and storing the diverse array of data signals using highly innovative, multifunctional, and intelligent garments, are of great value for personalized healthcare applications. However, material performance and sustainability, complicated and difficult e-textile fabrication methods, and their limited end-of-life processability are major challenges to wide adoption of e-textiles. In this review, we explore the potential for sustainable materials, manufacturing techniques, and their endof-the-life processes for developing eco-friendly e-textiles. In addition, we survey the current state-of-the-art for sustainable fibers and electronic materials (i.e., conductors, semiconductors, and dielectrics) to serve as different components in wearable e-textiles and then provide an overview of environmentally friendly digital manufacturing techniques for such textiles which involve less or no water utilization, combined with a reduction in both material waste and energy consumption. Furthermore, standardized parameters for evaluating the sustainability of e-textiles are established, such as life cycle analysis, biodegradability, and recyclability. Finally, we discuss the current development trends, as well as the future research directions for wearable e-textiles which include an integrated product design approach based on the use of eco-friendly materials, the development of sustainable manufacturing processes, and an effective end-of-the-life strategy to manufacture next generation smart and sustainable wearable e-textiles that can be either recycled to value-added products or decomposed in the landfill without any negative environmental impacts.
Serious climate changes and energy-related environmental
problems
are currently critical issues in the world. In order to reduce carbon
emissions and save our environment, renewable energy harvesting technologies
will serve as a key solution in the near future. Among them, triboelectric
nanogenerators (TENGs), which is one of the most promising mechanical
energy harvesters by means of contact electrification phenomenon,
are explosively developing due to abundant wasting mechanical energy
sources and a number of superior advantages in a wide availability
and selection of materials, relatively simple device configurations,
and low-cost processing. Significant experimental and theoretical
efforts have been achieved toward understanding fundamental behaviors
and a wide range of demonstrations since its report in 2012. As a
result, considerable technological advancement has been exhibited
and it advances the timeline of achievement in the proposed roadmap.
Now, the technology has reached the stage of prototype development
with verification of performance beyond the lab scale environment
toward its commercialization. In this review, distinguished authors
in the world worked together to summarize the state of the art in
theory, materials, devices, systems, circuits, and applications in
TENG fields. The great research achievements of researchers in this
field around the world over the past decade are expected to play a
major role in coming to fruition of unexpectedly accelerated technological
advances over the next decade.
The
massive production of polymer-based respiratory masks during
the COVID-19 pandemic has rekindled the issue of environmental pollution
from nonrecyclable plastic waste. To mitigate this problem, conventional
filters should be redesigned with improved filtration performance
over the entire operational life while also being naturally degradable
at the end. Herein, we developed a functional and biodegradable polymeric
filter membrane consisting of a polybutylene adipate terephthalate
(PBAT) matrix blended with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB)
and montmorillonite (MMT) clay, whose surface properties have been
modified through cation exchange reactions for good miscibility with
PBAT in an organic solvent. Particularly, the spontaneous evolution
of a partial core–shell structure (i.e., PBAT core encased
by CTAB-MMT shell) during the electrospinning process amplified the
triboelectric effect as well as the antibacterial/antiviral activity
that was not observed in naive PBAT. Unlike the conventional face
mask filter that relies on the electrostatic adsorption mechanism,
which deteriorates over time and/or due to external environmental
factors, the PBAT@CTAB-MMT nanofiber membrane (NFM)-based filter continuously
retains electrostatic charges on the surface due to the triboelectric
effect of CTAB-MMT. As a result, the PBAT@CTAB-MMT NFM-based filter
showed high filtration efficiencies (98.3%, PM0.3) even
at a low differential pressure of 40 Pa or less over its lifetime.
Altogether, we not only propose an effective and practical solution
to improve the performance of filter membranes while minimizing their
environmental footprint but also provide valuable insight into the
synergetic functionalities of organic–inorganic hybrid materials
for applications beyond filter membranes.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.