New Material Could Turn Clothing into a Health Monitor

Integricote family would like to congratulate CEO, Prof. Shay Curran, COO (Mr. Alexander J. Wang), Research Scientist (Dr. Surendra Maharjan), and CTO (Dr. Kang-Shyang Liao) for the wonderful work on a composite material that could turn clothing into a Health Monitor. The material is pliable enough to be woven into fabric but imbued with sensing capabilities that could serve as an early warning system for injury or illness. This work was published in ACS Applied Nano Materials.

Congratulations, Team Integricote!

This work was also selected for Supplementary Cover Art by ACS Applied Nano Materials.

This work was also selected for Supplementary Cover Art by ACS Applied Nano Materials.

A snippet from the original article:

Jeannie Kever
jekever@uh.edu
713-743-0778

The material, described in a paper published by ACS Applied Nano Materials, involves the use of carbon nanotubes and is capable of sensing slight changes in body temperature while maintaining a pliable disordered structure – as opposed to a rigid crystalline structure – making it a good candidate for reusable or disposable wearable human body temperature sensors. Changes in body heat change the electrical resistance, alerting someone monitoring that change to the potential need for intervention.

“Your body can tell you something is wrong before it becomes obvious,” said Seamus Curran, a physics professor at the University of Houston’s College of Natural Sciences & Mathe and co-author on the paper. Possible applications range from detecting dehydration in an ultra-marathoner to the beginnings of a pressure sore in a nursing home patient.

The researchers said it is also cost-effective because the raw materials required are used in relatively low concentrations.

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