Recently, researchers have become interested in exploring applications of rechargeable battery storage technology in different disciplines, which can help our daily life, such as textile-based supercapacitors. This paper briefly describes this development and classification of supercapacitors. Besides, various types of materials which are commonly used to prepare supercapacitors, such as carbons, metal oxides, alkaline earth metal salts and polymers, are introduced. Moreover, applications and methodology to prepare textile materials with supercapacitors are described. Finally, the commonly used non-destructive measuring methods for textile-based supercapacitors are also introduced.

A metal layer, used as a current collector layer for a textile-based supercapacitor (SC), was prepared on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fabrics using wet chemical methods. By integrating this additional current collector layer into the SC structure, the carbon-nanotube (CNT)-based SC showed an improved capacitive performance. The specific capacitances of the CNT/Cu/PET SC and CNT/Au/PET SC were 4.312 × 10⁻³ F cm⁻² and 3.683 × 10⁻³ F cm⁻² respectively, about 60 times larger than that obtained from the CNT/PET SC without the metal collector layer. On the other hand, the energy densities of these CNT-based SCs with metal layers were found to be ∼50 fold increased as compared to the CNT/PET SC. Similarly, the power densities of these two SCs with current collector layers were two orders of magnitude larger than that of CNT/PET SC. High flexibility was also demonstrated in these two metal-layered SCs. For the durability measurement, the CNT/Au/PET SC showed a stable performance, with its specific capacitance maintained at about 89% of its initial value after 2500 charge–discharge cycles. However, the CNT/Cu/PET SC only showed a relatively short-term stability, as its specific capacitance dropped to 12% of its initial value after 2500 charge–discharge cycles. In order to further improve its capacitive performance, polyaniline (PANI) was deposited on the CNT/Au/PET SC surface using a cyclic voltammetric deposition method. A specific capacitance of 0.103 F cm⁻², about 30 times larger than that of the CNT/Au/PET SC, was obtained in the PANI/CNT/Au/PET SC which also showed good flexibility as well as high stability performance, with only 11% drop after 2500 charge–discharge cycles. On the basis of our results, we believe that by integrating a thin current collector layer into the textile-based CNT SC, its specific capacitance is enhanced while its flexibility and durability can be maintained. This method allows us to make any non-conducting fabric into a SC and turn it into a portable and wearable energy storage device.

This paper describes an intensity-based notched polymer optical fiber (POF) fabric strain sensor and its application in human respiration monitoring. A mechanical analysis illustrates geometrical profiles of constrained fiber loops on the fabric substrate. V-shaped notches are made by laser ablation on the sides of the POFs. The effects of loop parameters and processing conditions on the sensing performance are investigated. The experimental results show that the fabric sensor is more sensitive to strain with notches on the outer side of the loops, a small radius of the loops and a low scanning speed of laser. This fabric sensor exhibits a large measurable strain range of up to 21%. The achieved strain sensitivity is 3.77. The temperature and relative humidity have little effect on strain sensitivity between 0℃ and 60℃. A belt has been fabricated by integrating the fabric sensor for monitoring human respiration. The evaluation trials show a strong correlation between the belt system and a clinic monitor.

This paper describes woven fabrics made from polymer optical fibers (POF), which are treated with a CO₂ laser so that the resultant surface notches on the POFs facilitate side emission of light. The transmission and side-emitting behavior of POF with surface notches are studied in term of the variation in bending curvatures, which is related to end-usage of the woven fabrics as flexible displays, wearable phototherapy devices and fashion accessories. The measured power of transmission of light from the POF rapidly decreases with increasing bending curvature. However, the measured power of side-emission of light from the notched POFs remains almost constant at various bending curvatures within the experimental range. Theoretical analysis of the light propagation in a notched POF is conducted, which illustrates that more light is reflected from one side of the notch when the bending curvature is increased hence the transmission of the light is decreased. The theoretical and experimental results reach a good agreement.

In this study, different concentrations of lithium perchlorate (LiClO₄) and various types of nanocarbons were applied to form poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO)-based electrochemical double-layer (EDL) supercapacitors. For samples doped with various concentrations of LiClO₄, 1 g/L of LiClO₄ was prepared and mixed with PEO solution in different ratios for different concentrations of PEO:Li⁺ mixtures for further solution casting. It was found that the maximum current density and specific capacitance of the sample prepared under the ratio of 100:1 of PEO:Li⁺ were 1.84 μA/cm² with a scanning rate of 100 mV/s and 33.56 nF/cm² at 40 Hz, respectively. These were 10 times and nearly 18 times better than the control capacitor prepared without LiClO₄. In addition, nanocarbons with four different structures, including mesoporous carbon nanopowders (Meso) and multi-walled (MW), double-walled (DW) and single-walled (SW) carbon nanotubes, were mixed with PEO solution to prepare samples via solution casting. The comparison of four types of nanocarbons showed that DW contributed the highest maximum current density and the specific capacitance at 10.51 μA/cm² under a scanning rate of 100 mV/s and 32.798 nF/cm² at 40 Hz, 60 times and 17 times higher than that of the control sample casted without any dopants.

The colour of carbon fibre fabric is black which limits its aesthetic properties. CO₂ laser has been used for cutting carbon fibres. The impact of CO₂ laser treatment to modify the surface of carbon fibre fabric is investigated in this work. Different combinations of laser process parameters, i.e., pixel time (110, 120, 130, 140, 150, 160, 170, 180, 190 and 200 µs, with 10 µs intervals) and resolution (70, 80, 90 and 100 dpi (dots per inch), with 10 dpi intervals), were used for treating carbon fibre fabric surface. Since the laser process is a surface treatment, contact angle measurement was used for evaluating the wetting property imparted after laser processing. The resistivity of the laser-treated carbon fibre fabric was measured to evaluate any effect on the original electrical property of the carbon fibre fabric. Moreover, surface morphology and functionality of laser-treated carbon fibre fabric were assessed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy-attenuated total internal reflectance (FTIR-ATR), respectively. SEM assessment was to examine the physical change in the carbon fibre surface after laser processing. On the other hand, the FTIR-ATR measurement can help to evaluate the chemical change in the carbon fibre surface after laser processing.