Did You Know?

Cotton textiles were the first product of the Industrial Revolution. Two hundred years later, they are merging with state-of-the-art nanotechnology. At the annual fashion show of Cornell University (U.S.A.), an undergraduate exhibited a spring coat that recharges the wearer’s cell phone with solar power. Cornell senior Abbey Liebman designed the coat out of a lightweight cotton twill and trimmed it with strips of flexible thin-film photovoltaic cells. Inside the coat, the cells are connected to electrically conductive cotton yarns designed by assistant professor Juan Hinestroza and his textile nanotechnology research group. The 200-µm-thick yarn—cotton with an embedded layer of nanostructured polymer—conducts power to a USB port in the waistband lining. Liebman says she was looking for a comfy design that would be good for the environment. Hinestroza’s group is now working to develop fabric that will serve directly as a solar collector.