Development of flexible textile aluminium-air battery prototype

There is one component that virtually any embedded wearable needs—a power source. This paper proposes an energy source, which contains no harmful substances, can be stored in a stand-by dry state for indefinite time period, is flexible and has tactile characteristics similar to that of textile. The main feature of this energy source is the separation of the electrolyte and the electrodes—the electrolyte is applied only when the battery needs to be activated. This makes storage time in a dry state virtually infinite. It expands their potential use to storage solutions and healthcare/health monitoring solutions, because the design of the battery allows it to be used as an active sensor, which generates electric current, when it detects liquid. We stress that this solution is suitable for specific applications only, outlined in the paper. The main components of the battery include aluminium anode, air cathode and the cotton shell. The design includes only textile-based materials, which ensure greater flexibility and better fusion with textile materials, where the battery is intended to be integrated. Besides that, results of the experiments with multi-cell battery prototype are presented.

Mechanical Characterization of Low Cost Natural Fiber Particles Reinforced with Polymer Composites

In the present decade, the center of concentration is on the growth of making polymer composites using agro wastes materials as reinforcements for recyclable composites. The objective of this work is to generate and investigate the mechanical properties of an eco-friendly low cost natural fiber reinforced polymer composite. Cotton Shell (CS) particles are less expensive natural fiber material which can be used as a filler material with Epoxy resin matrices. The filler material was integrated with Epoxy matrix in 0, 5, 10 and 15 weight %. Compression molding technique was used to prepare composites of Epoxy and CS. X-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) examination of the fibers revealed the existence of cellulose and lignin. Mechanical properties like Tensile, Impact and Hardness were examined. Results showed that the Tensile strength was increased with augment in particle loading and the impact strength decreases with the adding up of particle materials. Also it was observed that the hardness values are increasing with the increase in particle content.