Research progress in assembling flexible fiber devices with laser thermal effect from Institute of Engineering Thermophysics

[ Instrument Network Instrument R & D ] In recent years, based on the rapid development of multifunctional fiber material technology, more types of fibers have functions such as sensing, photoelectric conversion, energy collection and storage. As the demand for fabric-type wearable electronics continues to increase, multifunctional fiber-like devices and smart fiber fabrics provide a new solution for them. However, the problems of accurate and efficient positioning, connection, and assembly of various functional materials inside flexible fibers currently hinder the large-scale application of fiber devices.

Recently, the Energy Storage R & D Center of the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences cooperated with Nanyang Technological University of Singapore to propose a new technology for precise manipulation of particles in fibers based on the laser thermal effect. The precise movement and control of the internal particles has assembled a semiconductor heterogeneous functional structure, which provides new ideas for the preparation of complex and efficient functional structures and devices within the fiber.

In this study, the precise heating of a carbon dioxide laser converts a solid fiber material into a liquid state and generates a precisely regulated Marangoni heat flow inside the fiber. Particles integrated in the fiber can change position along with the thermal flow of the fiber material, and the direction and speed of particle movement can be controlled by modulating the laser. This breaks through the problem that the inherent position of the material in the solid fiber material cannot be precisely controlled, and makes it possible to construct more complex functional structural devices using the material combination inside the fiber. The method proposed in this research uses fluid as a carrier to manipulate particles, and has no selectivity in the structure, composition material, size, and number of particles. This characteristic greatly expands the scope of the method. Based on the above principles, a method for making homojunctions and heterojunctions using microparticles of semiconductor materials in fibers is obtained, which proves the ease of use of this method and its application prospects in many fields such as photovoltaics, photovoltaics, thermoelectricity, and energy storage.

Related results were published in Nature-Communications. The research was supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences' International Partnership Program and the Clean Energy Pilot Program.