Research Status and Development Direction of Smart Clothing Materials

With the continuous development of technology and society, smart devices have filled people’s lives and become an indispensable part of people’s lives. At the same time, smart clothing has also been greatly developed. This article introduces several smart clothing materials, analyzes the current research status of smart clothing materials, and further discusses the applications of smart clothing materials in military, medical, intelligent decoration, and sports and leisure fields. Then the problems of smart clothing in safety, environmental protection, and industrial technology are analyzed, and the corresponding solutions to these problems are proposed, so as to provide reference and guidance for the future development of smart clothing in China. And the research shows that smart clothing will develop in the direction of fashion and diversification, function and comfort, safety and environmental protection, convenience and low cost in the future.

Fabricating a smart clothing system based on strain-sensing yarn and novel stitching technology for health monitoring

Various yarn-shaped flexible strain sensors have recently been developed.However,research is lacking on additive manufacturing for smart clothing for integrating yarn sensors with commercial garments.Herein,a strain-sensing yarn is sewn into a piece of fabric through a novel stitching technique,and the influence of the stitching method and needle pitch on the sensing performance is investigated using finite element analysis(FEA).The sensing performance could be improved when the sensing yarn is self-locked in the fabric at the needle eyes,and the needle pitch was reduced to 0.5 cm,which is attributed to the enhanced stress and strain concentration.Meanwhile,the composite sensing fabric featured outstanding performance,including a low detection limit(0.1%),rapid response(280 ms),excellent durability(10000 cycles),and high stability(negligible drift and frequency independence).In addition,the remarkable wear resistance,washability,and anti-interference to ambient humidity and perspiration were obtained.Therein,the optimal stitch trace lengths of sensing yarn for detecting elbow motion,breathing,and heartbeats are discussed.Finally,a smart clothing system composed of smart clothing,data acquisition unit,and mobile APP was developed to simultaneously detect human movement and physiological signals.This work provides a reference to produce intelligent garments based on yarn sensors for health monitoring.

Silk Fibroin‑Based Wearable All‑Fiber Multifunctional Sensor for Smart Clothing

Wearable sensing technology enables the interaction between the physical world and the digital world,as takes an irreplaceable role in development of the Internet of Things(IoT),and artificial intelligence(AI).However,increasing requirements posed by rapid development of wearable electronic information technology bring about many for wearable sensing technology,such as the demands for ultrahigh flexibility,air permeability,excellent biocompatibility,and multifunctional integration.Herein,we propose a wearable all-fiber multifunctional sensor(AFMS)based on a biocompatible material,i.e.,silk fibroin.A simple two-layer configuration of a silk fiber film and an interdigital Ag nanowires(AgNWs)electrode was designed to construct the AFMS,in which silk fibroin simultaneously serves as a fundamental supporting component and a functional sensing component.Electrospinning and spray coating technologies were introduced to process the silk fiber film and the AgNWs electrode.The all-fiber configuration allows AFMS to possess ultrahigh flexibility and good air permeability,and silk fibroin enables the AFMS to have excellent biocompatibility.More importantly,benefiting from the all-fiber structure and the environmentally sensitive dielectric property of silk fibroin,the AFMS presented multiple sensing characteristics,including pressure sensing,temperature sensing,and humidity sensing.Among them,the pressure sensing function reached a high sensitivity of 2.27 pF/kPa(7.5%/kPa)and a remarkable resolution of~26 Pa in the low pressure range.Additionally,the outstanding mechanical reliability and sensing stability of AFMS were proven by a systematic experiment.In addition,the AFMS was successfully applied for smart mask for breathing monitoring and a smart glove for bending angle recognition of finger joints.Multiple sensing characteristics combined with prominent fundamental features enable the AFMS tremendous potential in the smart sensing field,e.g.,smart clothing.

Liquid metal-based textiles for smart clothes

The smart clothes emerge as a new generation of garments developed in the scientific and industrial communities,gaining increasing attention due to the real-time responses to exterior environments or stimuli.Owing to the unique merits of liquid metal(LM)such as excellent fluidity,high conductivity and intrinsic stretchability in ambient environment,LM-based smart textiles are widely applied in chemical sensors,wearable electronics and stretchable devices.This review is dedicated to summarizing different preparation methods and functions of LM-based textiles(LMTs)for smart clothes,which consists of the design principles,the fabrication strategies,the working mechanism of LMTs,and the tremendous applications sorted by the features of LM.Typical methods of the synthesis to build LMTs are divided into two domains classified by spatial arrangement.One strategy is the exterior decoration with LM,while the other is interior encapsulation of LM.Moreover,the primary applications of LMT-based smart clothes have been illustrated through the utilization of the properties of LM matrix.The categorization of LMTs aims to facilitate further investigation and research in the future development of LM-based smart clothes.Finally,future prospects and opportunities of LMT-based smart clothes are discussed in this area.

High-performance textile piezoelectric pressure sensor with novel structural hierarchy based on ZnO nanorods array for wearable application

With the increasing demand for smart wearable clothing, the textile piezoelectric pressure sensor (T-PEPS) that can harvest mechanical energy directly has attracted significant attention. However, the current challenge of T-PEPS lies in remaining the outstanding output performance without compromising its wearing comfort. Here, a novel structural hierarchy T-PEPS based on the single-crystalline ZnO nanorods are designed. The T-PEPS is constructed with three layers mode consisting of a polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane, the top and bottom layers of conductive rGO polyester (PET) fabrics with self-orientation ZnO nanorods. As a result, the as-fabricated T-PEPS shows low detection limit up to 8.71 Pa, high output voltage to 11.47 V and superior mechanical stability. The sensitivity of the sensor is 0.62 V·kPa−1 in the pressure range of 0–2.25 kPa. Meanwhile, the T-PEPS is employed to detect human movements such as bending/relaxation motion of the wrist, bending/stretching motion of each finger. It is demonstrated that the T-PEPS can be up-scaled to promote the application of wearable sensor platforms and self-powered devices.