X-rays have been instrumental in modern medical diagnostics since their discovery, from imaging broken bones to screening for early signs of breast cancer. However, traditional X-ray detectors, primarily made from rigid inorganic materials like scintillators, often require patients to contort their bodies to accommodate inflexible medical equipment. This rigidity limits their applications and can be uncomfortable for patients. The demand for more flexible, efficient, and durable materials for X-ray detection has been growing, as researchers seek solutions that would allow better integration with wearable health monitoring and other advanced medical technologies. Now, scientists have developed a new flexible inorganic fiber-based scintillator fabric for potential application in wearable X-ray imaging for medical diagnostics.

Researchers at Hong Kong Polytechnic University (Hong Kong, China) have developed an innovative, flexible scintillator fabric, known as "metafabric," that retains the high performance of traditional inorganic scintillators while being flexible and wearable. The team used a sol-gel electrospinning process to create fine strands of inorganic fibers, transforming rigid scintillators into a flexible material. This approach allowed the metafabric to be woven into various shapes and sizes, making it both breathable and wearable. The material works by absorbing high-frequency X-rays, which excite electrons in the scintillator, and then re-emitting that energy as visible light. The fabric is compatible with wearable technology, providing a new approach to X-ray imaging and potentially enabling a variety of other medical applications.

The research, published in Science Advances, demonstrated the proof of concept for the metafabric scintillator’s design. In tests, the fabric delivered 10 times higher output compared to previous flexible polymer-based scintillators. The team also integrated the material with flexible photodetectors, though this integration is still under development. The fabric's potential applications are vast, including wearable X-ray imaging devices, mobile health platforms for on-the-go diagnostics, radiation monitoring in hazardous environments, and X-ray shielding embedded into clothing. The researchers plan to further refine the technology and address challenges such as ensuring the material's safety for direct skin contact and improving its cost-effectiveness for mass production.

"This work offers a previously undefined paradigm for a scintillator system design strategy that maintains the high performance of inorganic scintillators while adding the functionality of being conformally flexible and wearable as fabrics," said Li Xu, lead researcher at Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

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