Electrical Modulation of Elastic Moduli

How could a textile change its feel upon the push of a button?

While we are accustomed to visual displays and loudspeakers, interactive tactile perception largely eludes our experience. Textiles that change their pliability and texture would allow for communication using our sense of touch.

Potential applications abound, from human-machine interfaces for robotics to new forms of virtual reality.To facilitate such a tuneable mechanical response, materials are needed whose stiffness can be altered. This project will use conjugated polymers to realise stimuli-responsive materials.

The developed materials will be spun into fibres and yarns, which will be integrated into prototype textile devices that can undergo a reversible change in pliability and texture.

The explored materials science concepts will open up a new line of research in the blossoming field of organic electronics, while the application-oriented part of the project opens new horizons for the interdisciplinary field of wearable electronics.