Ultra-sheer tights: an unexpected solution for l - sportstextiles: Lea SportsTextiles

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Ultra-sheer tights: an unexpected solution for light emitting fabric

06/03/2020
Canadian researchers may have figured out how to develop light-emitting fabric based on principles taken from typical ultrasheer tights (known as ‘pantyhose’ in North America). Discussing the article published in the journal Matter, senior author Tricia Carmichael, a professor of surface and materials chemistry at the University of Windsor, described how addressing limitations of existing light-emitting fabrics has many potential applications, such as for work wear for nighttime construction workers and on athletic apparel. 

Ms Carmichael spoke of the need for light-emitting displays that can be integrated into fabrics in way that leaves the fabric soft, lightweight, stretchable, washable, and wearable. Current approaches to producing light-emitting apparel typically involve stiff diodes, wires, and optical fibres within the textiles that are difficult to wash. 

As reported on Phys.org, the author’s lead author Yunyun Wu had the idea to use sheer fabrics to form the transparent conductor, a crucial element of all light-emitting devices. Together they realised sheer tights was an ideal material to build new electrodes.

The team used electroless nickel-immersion gold metallization, the report said, to coat pantyhose with a highly conductive gold film only about 100 nm in thickness. The coating process allowed the fabric to retain semi-transparency and stretchiness. 

Using this technique, according to the report, the researchers then created patterned light-emitting textiles with the smiley-face emoji and a dynamic display comprised of seven rectangular segments that could rearrange to display numbers.
Ms Carmichael said they are optimistic about being able to scale the technology by increasing the volume of the plating solution. Also, by using existing ultra-sheer fabrics, no new textile manufacturing is required. 

The primary remaining hurdle involves figuring out how to power the wearable light-emitting devices. The team is exploring a range of options for seamless integration

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