A team of researchers from Imperial College London developed a technique to print silver, gold and platinum onto natural fabrics. Up till now, metals were printed onto fabrics by coating them with plastic. The new approach, however, allows metal inks to cover entire fibres rather than simply coating the surface of the fabric. In a media brief, the researchers explained that to coat the fibres, they first covered them in microscopic particles of silicon, and then submerged the material into a solution containing metal ions. The process, known as SIAM or Si ink-enabled autocatalytic metallization, allowed the metals to ... (full story)