Smart textiles are one of the focuses of technological development identified by the UK Technology Strategy Board. Electrically conductive textiles are an essential carrier for medical diagnostic sensors for “assisted living” technologies, one of the UK government’s priority areas of technology development aimed at addressing the increasing healthcare demand as a result of the continuing trend of aging population. Recent years have seen significant advances in the development of smart textile-based healthcare devices. Examples include smart T-shirts and bed sheets for the monitoring of chronically ill patients via embedded sensors for electrocardiograph (ECG), respiration movement, pulse rate, skin temperature, blood oxygen saturation and body position/movement. The data are transmitted via a secure GPRS mobile connection to a central server. Electrical conductivity is an essentially required property of smart textiles. To date, four types of technology have been developed to render textiles conductive namely, woven metal fibre, conductive fibre containing conductive dopant, conductive coating on fibre and conductive print on fabric. However, all these technologies have intrinsic drawbacks, e.g. brittleness, increased weight and high production cost (woven metal fibre); low conductivity (doped conductive fibre), and most importantly, lack of ability to retain conductivity after creasing and washing cycles (coated fibre and print on fabric). Indeed, relatively low cost, crease- and wash-resistant, high conductivity fibre remains a technical challenge to date, which the proposed project aims to address. Thus, the proposed research will follow three stages of research namely, synthesis of novel “rubber-like”, high conductivity polymers; formulation of conductive inks using such polymers; and fabrication of conductive fabrics using such inks by low-cost processes.
Study information
Qualification:
PhD
Entry requirements:
PhD candidates must have, or expect to achieve a first or upper second class degree, or equivalent.
Language requirements:
IELTS: 6.0 with no individual skill band below 5.5 (inlistening and reading) and 5.0 (in speaking and writing).
Funding information
Funder:
The project will be jointly funded by The Worshipful Company of Clothworkers London and High Force Research Ltd.
Funding applies to:
EU applicants (including UK)
Funding notes:
Directly funded (UK and EU students only). PhD studentships in the School of Chemistry are fully funded and cover full payment of UK/EU tuition fees and a tax-free stipend of approximately £13000 per annum .
Funding duration:
duration of course
Contacts and how to apply
Academic contact:
Professor Long Lin- L.Lin@leeds.ac.uk
Administrative contact and how to apply:
You can apply online or download a paper copy of application form. If you submit a paper copy of the application form, please remember to include your signature, so we can proceed with your application - emailed forms are not acceptable on their own. Applicants are encouraged to include a covering letter, CV, degree and English language certificates (where appropriate) and transcripts (where available).
Apply online
We require the names of two academic referees. Download a reference request form (Word) to pass to your referees.
Download the application form in Word format, fill out and send to:
Postgraduate Admissions
Research Degrees and Scholarships Office
University of Leeds
Leeds LS2 9JT
All applications are given careful consideration on academic grounds. We can only review your application once we have received all the necessary supporting documents.
Further information can be found here: http://www.chem.leeds.ac.uk/newRPG/aper.htm
