In the latest development in wearable technology, researchers at Cornell University, New York have made it possible for cotton clothing to kill bacteria, ward off malaria, capture harmful gases and even conduct electricity, by turning cotton fibres into electronic components, such as transistors and thermistors. This has been done by adding conformal coatings of gold nanoparticles, as well as semi-conductive and conductive polymers to tailor the behaviour of natural cotton fibres, which was possible because of cotton’s irregular topography.
The use of nanoparticles to achieve such functionalities not only eliminates the use of dyes to colour the fibre surfaces, but also efficiently kills 99.9 per cent of the bacteria, and that too, without hampering the flexibility of the fabric.
