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NRC Industrial Materials InstituteINTELLIGENT FIBRESNRC Industrial Materials Institute is actively involved in researchand development in the field of intelligent textiles. This R&D hasmany potential applications, including: textiles, medicine and construction.The research also has industrial applications, and can be applied inthe design of sensors or interactive garments.Figure 1.Electrospun Nafion® nanofibers mat (ion-conducting polymer,60 nm average diameter) on a melt blown mat of polypropylene (PP).TYPES OF INTELLIGENT FIBRESVarious intelligent fibres under development at NRC-IMI :high performance fibres having a superior mechanical and thermalresistance that, when reinforced with nanoparticles for example, haveparticular qualities that leave them impervious to water or heat;conducting fibres devised from conducting polymers or conductingmicro/nanoparticles that can more easily be deformed and be betterconductors of electricity or heat than the usual plastics;Figure 2.Conductive elctrospun fibres of poly(3-hexylthiophène)(500 nm average diameter).WHY INTELLIGENT FIBRES?The mission of the NRC-IMI Functional PolymerSystems group is to respond to the needs of Canadianindustry and its desire to add functionalities inpolymer materials. NRC-IMI can produce fibresmeasuring from a few nanometres to several micronsin diameter.piezoelectric fibres that can transmit a signal after deformation andcould be used to measure the pulse or muscle contraction;chromic/photovoltaic fibres having the ability of changing colouras needed or of generating electricity from light; they could thus warm agarment or power an electrical device.Figure 3.Laboratory pilot line for heat stretching; it is possible to producefilaments having up to three layers of three different materials.

EQUIPMENT AND INSTALLATIONSMelt spinning/melt blowing pilot lineDuring heat stretching, the fibres are formed by mechanical stretching of extruded filaments at different stages from a melt to the solidstate. As for the heat blowing process, the fibres are stretched at the end of the procedure by blowing them with high speed air.SPINHEADGODETSTATION 1HEATERGODETSTATION 2TRAVERSEWINDERMultilayer single fiber spinningA variant of heat stretching, this procedure on a laboratory extrusion line permits the production of fibres by stretching made up of threelayers of three different materials.ElectrospinningThis process, which permits the production of nanofibres from very small quantities of material (< 1 mg), consists of stretching a fibre froma polymer solution using an electric field. This process also permits the production of multilayer fibres (our installations allow up to threeto be produced).COLLABORATE WITH NRC-IMIWith its expertise and its state-of-the-art equipment, theNRC Industrial Materials Institute is ready to partner withyou for a better understanding of these functional polymerbasedtechnologies, for the production of intelligent fibresand to pursue the development of this science.The R&D resources of NRC-IMI are accessible to companiesas well as other research laboratories that wish to conductcollaborative projects with an integrated approach in orderto benefit from technical support or to carry out feasibilitystudies in the development of a process.Industrial Materials InstituteNational Research Council Canada75 de Mortagne BoulevardBoucherville, QC J4B 6Y4imi.cnrc-nrc.gc.caLucie Robitaille, Ph.D.Group Leader, Functional Polymer SystemsTel: (450) 641-5032Fax:(450) 641-5105E-mail: lucie.robitaille@cnrc-nrc.gc.caAbdellah Ajji, M.Sc.A., Ph.D.Research Officer, Functional Polymer SystemsTel: (450) 641-5244Fax: (450) 641-5105E-mail: abdellah.ajji@cnrc-nrc.gc.caPrinted in Canada / Imprimé au Canada*Ce document est aussi disponible en français.