About the project
Electronic textiles, or e-textiles, refers to the addition of electronics, sensors, actuators, energy harvesters and energy storage within fabric materials. Textiles are the most common material humans come into physical contact with, so e-textiles provide a ubiquitous platform for a new class of wearable technology where the electronics are hidden and undetectable within otherwise standard items of clothing.
This project will involve fabricating batteries/supercapacitors within textile substrates and developing materials and methods to protect the devices. The PhD will follow on from recent work which has demonstrated the suitability of textiles to provide a scaffold for both supercapacitors and batteries and aims to improve the performance of the devices and explore encapsulation methods that will improve their durability. Textiles are used in industry, agriculture, civil engineering, the marine environment, transport and medicine. So the potential applications for this technology are vast.
You will join the School of Electronics and Computer Science which is ranked 1st in the UK for Electrical and Electronic Engineering (Guardian University Guide 2022) within the University of Southampton which is ranked in the top 1% of universities worldwide. We will provide access to specialist equipment and laboratories for manufacture and testing and you will be supervised by leading academics in the field. We will also support the development of your future career and give you opportunities to expand your experience and knowledge beyond the topic of the PhD project.
