Progress in Flexible Electronic Textile for Heating Application: A Critical Review

Abstract

Intelligent textiles are predicted to see a ‘surprising’ development in the future. The consequence of this revived interest has been the growth of industrial goods and the improvement of innovative methods for the incorporation of electrical features into textiles materials. Conductive textiles comprise conductive fibres, yarns, fabrics, and finished goods produced using them. Present perspectives to manufacture electrically conductive threads containing conductive substrates, metal wires, metallic yarns, and intrinsically conductive polymers. This analysis concentrates on the latest developments of electro-conductivity in the area of smart textiles and heeds especially to materials and their assembling processes. The aim of this work is to illustrate a potential trade-off between versatility, ergonomics, low energy utilization, integration, and heating properties.

Joule-Heating Effect of Thin Films with Carbon-Based Nanomaterials

“…Certain resistivity and conductivity values are needed to obtain a heating effect according to Joule's Law. For the generation of active heat in a fabric, the coating of a paste made of an active material with good conductivity mixed with an insulating polymer is one of the methodologies [1]. In this study, the heating effect of the coated samples was investigated by applying 12 V, in particular to be able to use them in automotive applications.…”

“…Even though textiles have historically mainly been used for clothing purposes, the advancement of technology has opened up their use for various other applications. Textile materials possess high electrical resistance, low electrical conductivity, and low thermal conductivity in their pristine state [1]. Developments in nanotechnology have given the opportunity of introducing new functionalities to textiles, endowing the production of smart and intelligent textiles [2].…”

“…Joule law explains the dissipation of energy in the form of heat once a current is applied to a certain material. A very conductive material will not present any resistance to the passage of current, which is why a conductive material should have some resistivity value to be able to produce heat [1].…”

Nanotechnologies in Textiles

“…A critical review by Repon et al [17] indicated the importance of the recent advances in conductive textiles comprising conductive fibers, yarns, and fabrics, and the finished goods produced using them. These electrically conductive threads contain conductive substrates, metal wires, metallic yarns, nanomaterial additives, and intrinsically conductive polymers.…”

Influence of Knitting Engineering and Environment Conditions on the Performance of Heating Textiles for Therapeutic Applications

“…The electric heating functionality can be realized in a textile fabric by means of coating, lamination, printing, and integration . In previous research, metal-, conductive polymer-, and carbon-based materials were used to develop the electrical-based heating textile. − It has been found that textile substrates were coated with conductive polymers such as polypyrrole (PPy), polyethylene dioxophene thiophene (PEDOT), graphene oxide (GO), polyaniline, and polythiophene for the fabrication of the heating fabric/pad. Although the heating textiles coated with a conductive polymer exhibited high conductivity, the comfortability of the fabric suffers due to increased rigidity and impermeability.…”