A review of elastic conductive textiles: classification, fabrication, and emerging applications

Abstract

Elastic conductive textiles have emerged as a rapidly expanding class of flexible materials with broad applications in wearable sensing, human–machine interaction, thermal management, and energy harvesting. In this review, we summarize three mainstream fabrication strategies of elastic conductive textiles—structural design, coating/deposition, and composite fiber-based approaches—and discuss their corresponding mechanisms, typical implementations, advantages, limitations, and emerging applications. Structural design strategies exploit macro-/micro-scale architectures to buffer strain while maintaining conductive pathways; coating/deposition methods functionalize conventional textiles with conductive materials via dip-coating, spraying, printing, or electroless plating; and composite fiber-based techniques integrate conductivity and elasticity at the fiber production stage by compounding conductive fillers with elastic polymer matrices. We further compare these strategies in terms of performance trade-offs, process complexity, and suitability for practical applications, and highlight current challenges and future research directions toward high-performance, durable, and scalable elastic conductive textiles.