Embroidering A Light And Foldable Photovoltaic Gauze Kerchiefs

With the development of flexible electronics, energy fabric is a promising alternative for the power supply for them. Sustainable solar-harvesting textile with comfortable wearing experience and stylish appearance are essential to the future lifestyle for driving smart electronics. Different from form the photovoltaic textile based on a shuttle-flying process, the couching embroidery process is another traditional textile technology by reliably stitching ribbons and wires at any desired length onto fabric to make nice-looking fabric at an industrial scale. Photovoltaic textiles woven from shuttle-flying process may be too thick for a light and breathable summer dress. Herein, a foldable and stretchable all-solid photovoltaic gauze kerchief with colorful patterns is presented, which was directly assembled from short photoanode cables via an industrial-scalable couching embroidery strategy. Due to a reliable electric connection, the light and breathable textile, which is comfortable for summer wearing, can provide any desired electric output for wearable electronics. Furthermore, the couching embroidering technology can also offer ideas for other functional fiber devices to integrate on the textile, which will render the textile with almost unlimited functions in the commercial application.