Imagine if you could charge your phone or laptop on the go through a fabric case, or even through the clothes you are wearing.
This could soon be a possibility as a new solar-powered e-textile has been developed that could allow electronic devices to be charged without having to plug them into a wall socket or power bank.
Researchers from Nottingham Trent University have built an advanced prototype of textile solar cells that are light and flexible enough to be carried or worn without the user noticing.
Dr Theodore Hughes-Riley, associate professor of Electronic Textiles at the Nottingham School of Art & Design, said that the material is a kind of textile solar panel with many of the properties of a normal textile.
It can be deformed like a regular textile, is soft to the touch and breathable, he explained.
It can also be washed at standard washing machine temperatures of 40C.
The tiny cells used in the textile measure just 5mm by 1.5mm and were soldered onto two copper wires before being treated with a waterproof polymer coating and incorporated into a yarn.
The team embedded 1,200 of the photovoltaic cells into yarn that was used to make the textile using regular weaving techniques.
Material produced enough power to charge a mobile phone
This resulted in a piece of material measuring 51cm by 27cm, which was enough to generate a power output of 335.3mW in tests under 0.86 sunlight.
Under 1.0 sunlight, it would be capable of generating up to 394mW, which is sufficient for charging a basic mobile phone or smartwatch.
Matholo Kgatuke, research associate in the Weaving of Electronic Textiles, said that the project demonstrated how e-textiles can play a leading role in sustainability.
She added that they had the potential to “reshape our existing conceptions of technology”.
In order to commercialise the product, the team will look to develop methods of producing the yarns at a larger scale using automation techniques.
USB or micro-USB ports are also likely to be added for extra utility.
Elsewhere, Swedish tech startup Exeger has developed solar power technology known as Powerfoyle, which can be incorporated into existing devices.
Powerfoyle is not a textile but is built into flexible strips that can harness solar energy to power the devices into which they are built.
They have so far been used in a number of devices, including headphones, a bike helmet and a self-powered tracking dog harness.
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