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Textile Energy Storage

Super-capacitors made with activated carbon material

This research focuses on electrical energy storage solutions for textiles and wearable electronics, a fundamental challenge for designers of smart textiles and wearable technology. As a solution to this problem, we are focusing on super-capacitors made with activated carbon material. When combined with low power energy harvesting devices, such as power supply, they can eliminate the need for batteries in applications like wireless sensor networks. In our previous work, we screen printed woven cotton and polyester electrodes with activate carbon as proof of concept for a textile super-capacitor. We are currently investigating the incorporation of spun carbon fiber yarn into a knit architecture to fully integrate super-capacitor devices directly into textiles.

The Capacitive Touch Sensor (CTS) is a gesture sensitive functional textile touch-pad interface for physical devices. The CTS is produced as a single piece of fabric requiring only two electrodes to connect it to a microcontroller. The CTS offers a solution for a flexible touch interface with consistent location detection, responsiveness, comfort and unobtrusiveness. Contact us at functionalfabrics@drexel.edu for more information.

 

Collaborators

 Genevieve Dion, MID
  Center for Functional Fabrics, Drexel University; Department of Design, Westphal College of Media Arts & Design, Drexel University
Yury Gogotsi, PhD A.J. Drexel Nanomaterials Institute, Drexel University; Nanomaterials Group, Materials Science and Engineering, College of Engineering, Drexel University
Paul C. Trulove Department of Chemistry, U.S. Naval Academy
Luke Haverhals, PhD Mund-Lagowski Department of Chemistry, Bardley University
David P. Durkin Department of Chemistry, U.S. Naval Academy
Hugh De Long Complex Materials and Devices Department, Air Force Office of Scientific Research
E. Kathryn Brown, PhD Department of Chemistry, U.S. Naval Academy

FUNDING

The work has been funded through:

  • National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships Program (Levitt A)
  • Department of Defense’s National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship (DGE-0654313; Jost K)
  • International Collaboration in Chemistry: Ionic Liquid in Confined Environments - National Science Foundation (CHE-0924570; PI Gogotsi)
  • U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research
  • Fluid Interface Reactions, Structures and Transport (FIRST) Center - U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences (ERKCC61
  • U.S. Naval Academy
  • Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
  • Research Co-op Office of the Steinbright Career and Development Center (SCDC) at Drexel University
  • Fashionable Technology Project - Westphal College of Media Arts and Design (Synergy Grant 2010 – 2011)

PUBLICATIONS

Jost K, Durkin DP, Haverhals LM, Brown EK, De Long H, Trulove PC,: Natural Fiber Welded Electrode Yarns for Knittable Textile Supercapacitors

Gogotsi Y, Dion G. 2014. Natural fiber welded electrode yarns for knittable textile supercapacitors. In: The Fiber Society 2014 Fall Meeting and Technical Conference; 2014 October 22-24; Philadelphia, PA.

Jost K, Dion G, Gogotsi Y. 2014. Garment Device: Integrating energy storage into textiles. In: Barfied W, Caudell T, editors: Fundamentals of wearable computers and augmented reality. 2nd ed. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.

Patron D, Jost K, Cook A, Fisher J, Le M, Watt S, Gogotsi Y, Dandekar K, Dion G. 2014. Knitted Wireless Power Harvesting and Storage. In: The Fiber Society 2014 Fall Meeting and Technical Conference; 2014 October 22-24; Philadelphia, PA.

Jost K, Dion G, Gogotsi Y. 2014. Designing Knitted Architectures for Applications in Electrochemical Capacitors. ECS Trans. 2014 October 9; Abstract 213.

Durkin D, Jost K, Brown EK, Haverhals L, Dion G, De Long H, Trulove P, Gogotsi, Y. Knitted electrochemical capacitors via natural fiber welded electrode yarns. ECS Trans. 2014:61(6)17-19.

Jost K, Dion G, Gogotsi Y.Textile energy storage in perspective. J Mater Chem A. 2014:2(28):10776.

Jost K, Stenger D, Perez CR, McDonough JK, Lian K, Gogotsi Y, Dion G.Knitted and screen printed carbon fiber textile-supercapacitors for applications in wearable electronics.Energ Environ Sci. 2013:6(9):2698-2705.

Jost K, Perez CR, McDonough JK, Presser V, Heon M, Dion G, Gogotsi Y. Carbon coated textiles for flexible energy storage. Energ Environ Sci. 2011:4(12):5060-5067

PATENTS

Knitted Electrochemical Capacitors and Heated Fabrics | Drexel Ref. 13-1586D | U.S. Full Patent Application No. 61/858,358 Filed 7/25/2013

Textile energy storage | Drexel Ref. 12-1386D | U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/635,184 Filed 4/18/2012