Sandra Gellner, a doctoral student at The Hochschule Niederrhein, has received a distinction at an international conference for her development of a battery made from environmentally friendly textiles. The doctoral student works in the field of Smart Electronic Textiles at the interface between the Faculties of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Textile and Clothing Technology.
Her presentation "Textile-Based Battery Using A Biodegradable Gel-Electrolyte" received the Best Student Presentation Award at the international conference E-Textiles 2020 ("2nd International Conference on the Challenges, Opportunities, Innovations and Applications in Electronic Textiles"). The virtual international conference gives various experts the opportunity to present their current research in the field of smart textiles.
Sandra Geller, 29, who lives in Duisburg, previously studied nanosciences at the University of Duisburg-Essen. As part of her doctorate at The Hochschule Niederrhein, she developed a textile-based, one-millimeter-thin battery made from environmentally friendly materials, including a biodegradable gel electrolyte. Thanks to the textile architecture, the battery is flexible and can be bent 180 degrees in both directions without causing a short circuit. The choice of materials also enables operation without additional encapsulation.
"This distinction confirms the excellent interdisciplinary cooperation between the two faculties and encourages us to continue on this path together," say the two professors Anne Schwarz-Pfeiffer (Faculty of Textile and Clothing Technology) and Ekaterina Nannen (Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science). This lays the foundation for joint interdisciplinary teaching education in the field of smart textiles with the joint compulsory optional course Smart Electronic Textiles.
In addition to Sandra Gellner, doctoral student Ramona Nolden from The Hochschule Niederrhein also gave a presentation entitled "Smart Glove with an Arduino-Controlled Textile Bending Sensor, Textile Data Conductors and Feedback Using LED-FSDs TM and Embroidery Technology". She developed an intelligent glove consisting of an integrated textile bending sensor in the finger, functional sequins on the back of the hand, an attachable cuff with a microcontroller and an energy source.
