Sense and Degrade: Fully Bio-Based and Biodegradable eTextile Capacitive Sensor

Today, we can manufacture diverse interactive textiles by seamlessly integrating advanced functional materials and flexible electronics into fabric structures. This field, while thrilling, has its significant challenges. The issues of material usage, disassembly, and disposal underscore the need to prioritize sustainability in developing electronic textiles (eTextiles). From a circular design perspective, integrating more sustainable materials can contribute to these multifaceted issues. Notably, renewable and biodegradable materials have shown great potential in creating nearly every component of an eTextile system, allowing it to replace commonly used non-renewable and toxic plastics and metals. This study showcases a fully bio-based, biodegradable and disassemblable eTextile capacitive pressure sensor. The sensor combines novel cellulose-based conductive and dielectric materials into a wool and cellulose-woven substrate. Our research presents the sensor materials, fabrication techniques, evaluation and biodegradability studies. In addition, we discuss proof-of-concept use cases and their disassembly through water. With this, we expect to contribute to developing sustainable and biodegradable electronic textiles, which presents exciting opportunities for the future of smart textiles technology.