| Recently, flexible and stretchable textile electronics have attracted great attention because of their broader applications in topics such as e-skin, stretchable circuits, and fitness/biomedical devices. These devices are not only flexible for conformal contact with asymmetrical and non-uniform surfaces (e.g. human skin, organs, and tissues) but also reliable under extreme levels of deformation (e.g. stretching, twisting and compressing). A flexible and stretchable textile power source is critical to creating a truly stand-alone and self-powered system. Among many flexible and stretchable textile batteries and energy storage devices (e.g. supercapacitors, lithium-ion batteries, and enzymatic fuel cells) that show considerable potential, microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are the most underdeveloped. Even so, excitement is building, as MFCs are the most suitable power source for self-sustainable operation without the need to recharge from external power supplies or a noble chemical electrolyte for activation. This is because microorganisms can self-sustainably harvest electricity from any biodegradable substrates (i.e. tears, sweat, saliva, urine, and blood), which can be conveniently collected from the wearers of the MFC. This thesis work is to create highly flexible and stretchable textile-based MFCs for realizing low-power, stand-alone, self-sustainable wearable systems. Chapter 1 introduces a dual-layer textile membrane-based MFC, incorporating all functional components into two pieces of fabric layers; an anodic fabric layer with conductive and hydrophilic polymer coating and a solid-state cathodic fabric layer. Chapter 2 reports a single-layer textile MFC, monolithically integrating a membrane-less MFC into a single sheet of fabric substrate. |
