A smart, stretchable resistive heater textile

Abstract

A new kind of flexible and stretchable strip-shaped thermochromic resistive heater (TRH) has been fabricated by incorporating an aligned carbon nanotube sheet and a thermochromic silicone elastomer. This strip-shaped TRH demonstrates rapid thermal response and high stability even under stretching at a speed of 2 mm s⁻¹. The resulting TRH textiles woven from the strip-shaped TRHs are flexible, stretchable, and breathable, and they can stably work under various deformations such as twisting. The temperatures of TRH textiles during working can be visually evaluated from the designed patterns for both high efficiency and safety. The weaving structure in the TRH textile is available for local heating, which has been demonstrated for thermal therapy.