Development of a Soft Electrochromic Yarn with Low Operating Voltage

LED, OLED, and optical fibres used in wearable displays are high energy-consuming and rigid and thus restraining their applications in textiles. There are recent efforts to apply smart materials to textiles by coating electrochromic materials on rigid substrate; however, the resulted textile display is still hard, the fabrics fail to obtain pixels small enough for display, and most organic electrochromic materials used in these researches are toxic for human skin.

This project will develop a soft electrochromic yarn without toxicity with low operating voltage. It is achieved by coating electrochromic materials onto soft conductive yarns through electroplating. As electrochromic materials can show color change induced by a change in electrical potential, using electrochromism makes the control of textile color-change possible. The application of a small electric field is also a promising energy-saving technology.

It is expected that a soft electrochromic yarn and a prototype of textile display will be obtained. This study paves the way for the futuristic textile display development.