Smart Wearable Fibers and Textiles: Status and Prospects

Abstract

Smart wearables as an emerging revolutionary technology that can be directly worn on body and integrated into clothes, which own the characteristics including lightweight, portable, soft as well as could conformal to the curved human body surface naturally. Because of the high air permeability, human compatibility, and wearing comfort performance of textiles, integrate the smart wearable technology with textiles seamlessly is regarded as the future essential development directions. Taking fiber electronics as building units to weave smart wearable textiles can not only endowing traditional clothes with multiple intelligent functions and the wearable systems with ideal breathability, but also can endure modern textile processing technologies such as knitting and weaving, which opens up a new-brand path for the large-scale application of wearable electronics. This review comprehensively summarizes the state-of-the-art advancements on smart wearable fibers and textiles, including smart materials, properties, fabrication strategies, surface modifications, and smart wearable applications. We focus on advanced smart wearable fibers and textiles which could simultaneously exhibit excellent multi-functions and highly comfort wearable experience even under large mechanical deformations, and discuss the strategies and mechanisms that suitable for fabricating smart wearable fibers and textiles with excellent signal capture and transmission reliability. Finally, critical consideration on the opportunities and challenges of smart wearable fibers and textiles towards practical wearable applications are also presented and discussed.