Empa-Akademie, Dübendorf, Switzerland |
Department of Materials, University of Manchester, UK Keynote Speaker |
Ink Drops are Falling on my Thread: The Interaction of Functional Inks with Textile Substrates
Abstract :
Textile substrates are composed of a complex arrangement of bundles of organic fibres with diameters typically < 10 microns, with the precise architecture a function of the textile type, e.g. woven, knitted or non-woven. The resulting surface is hence highly porous and non-planar at a length scale close to that of of inkjet printed drops. This leads to a complex wetting behaviour that is highly sensitive to the surface energies of the ink, textile material and the resulting contact angle. The effect of contact angle and fibre architecture is shown to strongly influence the electrical conductance of printed silver tracks on woven polyester substrates. X-Ray computed tomography (XCT) is used to image the distribution of inks throughout a textile fibre structure and determine the mechanism that controls conductivity. A strong fibre/ink interaction is also shown to be beneficial for the deposition of antibacterial compounds on wound dressings with XCT illustrating the distribution of antimicrobial Ag compounds in a hydrogel forming textile.
Bio :
Brian Derby is Professor of Materials Science in the School of Materials. He is based in the Materials Science centre. His research spans three of the research groups within the School of Materials: ceramics and glasses, biomaterials, nanostructured materials.
Brian graduated in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University in 1978 and obtained his PhD, also from Cambridge, in 1981. He spent 1 year working at the Centre d'Etudes Nucleaire de Grenoble as an ESA Fellow before spending 2 years in Cambridge University Engineering Department as a Research Fellow. He was in the University of Oxford, Department of Materials from 1983 -1998 as a Research Fellow, Lecturer and Reader in Materials Engineering, where he was Director of the Oxford Centre for Advanced Materials and Composites. He was appointed Professor in Materials Science at the Materials Science Centre in 1999. He was elected a member of the World Academy of Ceramics in 2004.
Brian Derby's research interests span a wide range with a focus on the processing-structure-mechanical properties relation in ceramics and glasses, biomaterials and nanostructured materials. Recently he has been at the forefront of research into the development of inkjet printing as a manufacturing tool. He has particular interest in developing methods of characterising materials and processes in situ. Much of this work has been carried out collaborating with industry and other research groups across the world.
> Please see this page for more details and research interests and publications.
Brian graduated in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University in 1978 and obtained his PhD, also from Cambridge, in 1981. He spent 1 year working at the Centre d'Etudes Nucleaire de Grenoble as an ESA Fellow before spending 2 years in Cambridge University Engineering Department as a Research Fellow. He was in the University of Oxford, Department of Materials from 1983 -1998 as a Research Fellow, Lecturer and Reader in Materials Engineering, where he was Director of the Oxford Centre for Advanced Materials and Composites. He was appointed Professor in Materials Science at the Materials Science Centre in 1999. He was elected a member of the World Academy of Ceramics in 2004.
Brian Derby's research interests span a wide range with a focus on the processing-structure-mechanical properties relation in ceramics and glasses, biomaterials and nanostructured materials. Recently he has been at the forefront of research into the development of inkjet printing as a manufacturing tool. He has particular interest in developing methods of characterising materials and processes in situ. Much of this work has been carried out collaborating with industry and other research groups across the world.
> Please see this page for more details and research interests and publications.