Advanced Functional Fiber and Smart Textile

Abstract

The research and applications of fiber materials are directly related to the daily life of social populace and the development of relevant revolutionary manufacturing industry. However, the conventional fibers and fiber products can no longer meet the requirements of automation and intellectualization in modern society, as well as people's consumption needs in pursuit of smart, avant-grade, fashion and distinctiveness. The advanced fiber-shaped electronics with most desired designability and integration features have been explored and developed intensively during the last few years. The advanced fiber-based products such as wearable electronics and smart clothing can be employed as the second skin to enhance information exchange between humans and the external environment. In this review, the significant progress on flexible fiber-shaped multifunctional devices, including fiber-based energy harvesting devices, energy storage devices, chromatic devices, and actuators are discussed. Particularly, the fabrication procedures and application characteristics of multifunctional fiber devices such as fiber-shaped solar cells, lithium-ion batteries, actuators and electrochromic fibers are introduced in detail. Finally, we provide our perspectives on the challenges and future development of functional fiber-shaped devices.

Flexible Solar Yarns with 15.7% Power Conversion Efficiency, Based on Electrospun Perovskite Composite Nanofibers

“…[14] Reports from several authors have indicated the following interesting achievements; drastic increase in the PCE from 3.8% in 2009, [15] to 23.7% in a period of 10 years, a remarkable improvement in stability from a few hours of operation to a maximum life time of 1 year [16] and beyond, broadened range of materials including flexible and cheap substances and a notable reduction in production costs due to the ease of assembling methods. [17] However, due to the numerous advantages associated with the fiber geometry such as the light weight, increased flexibility, and the ease of conversion into other structures such as fabrics, together with an increasing demand for textile-based energy-harvesting devices, developed with the intent of powering in body, on body, near body, and other wearable electronics, [18][19][20] the research in the domain of fiber-shaped solar cells is slowly following the footsteps of their 2D counterparts.…”

Violin String Inspired Core-Sheath Silk/Steel Yarns for Wearable Triboelectric Nanogenerator Applications

“…Wearable devices integrated smart-textiles and multifunctional suits are receiving significant research enthusiasm due to the urgent needs of constantly monitoring human body condition to prevent disease and provide extra protection, and other promising future applications such as body function enhancement [1][2][3]. Power supply for these integrated intelligent clothing remains a challenge.…”

Ultrasensitive Wearable Pressure Sensors Based on Silver Nanowire-Coated Fabrics

“…To date, numerous methods have been developed to improve the sensor performance by optimizing the nanomaterials, including carbon nanotubes (CNTs) [1], graphene nanosheets [9], metal nanowires [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19], conductive polymers [20], and their composite materials [21][22][23][24][25][26]. Particularly, Ag nanowire (AgNW) has been widely explored as the sensing materials or conductive fillers in pressure sensors because of its excellent electrical properties.…”