Sustainable, Wearable, and Eco-Friendly Electronic Textiles

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.