Led by Associate Professor Ali Javey of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley in the United States, battery-less smart curtains have been developed recently within the gamut of smart and intelligent textiles. The smart curtains were made by layering carbon nanotubes on polycarbonate membranes which get activated in the presence of light. According to the researchers, the nanotubes absorb the sunlight instantaneously then and convert the reserved energy into heat. The heat gets transferred to the polycarbonate membrane which results in the expansion of the plastic curtain.
The researchers claim that such light activated plastic curtains are easy to make and can be activated using low intensity light as well. It is said that the multi-disciplinary approaches involving different disciplines, such as polymer science, electrical engineering, material science and chemistry, to name a few are needed to develop functional and technical textiles like this.