Non-noble Metal Electroluminescent Fibers for Visual Monitoring and Interaction

Abstract

Alternating current electroluminescent (ACEL) fibers with wearable characteristics, such as flexibility, light weight, stitchability and comfort, are emerging in textile displays for daily applications. To construct efficient ACEL fibers, a judiciously designed and low-cost electrode is also extremely important but seems to receive less attention. Inspired by fiber dyeing, we propose a method that employs non-noble metals to design fiber electrodes by constructing microconductive channels inside commercial fibers. This method relies on the window period formed by the glass transition temperature of the PAN fibers, which is sufficiently flexible to extend to mass production at a low cost (approximately US$ 1.86/kg). The resulting ACEL fibers interwoven with a transparent fiber electrode formed a textile display with an acceptable luminescence performance of 46 cd·m⁻² (160 V). Notably, a visual feedback e-textile (VFET) was constructed by integrating fiber sensors, which demonstrates the concept of wearable real-time visual monitoring and interaction. Compared with their individual counterparts, VFET has been conveniently and efficiently for visual monitoring, communication, and interaction, i.e., the visualization of physiological parameters (heartbeat, respiration, etc.) and nonverbal communications (literal or cryptographic) for special groups and specific scenes.

Graphical Abstract