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Characterization and Multifunction Application of Metalized Textile Materials
Abstract
The development of modern materials technology has drawn attention to more application possibilities for metalized fabrics. Metalized textiles not only have electrical conductivity, antibacterial properties, and electromagnetic shielding properties of metals but also significantly improve the softness and comfort of the material after combining with textiles. Under such circumstances, the application scenarios of metal-coated fabrics become very broad. For different applications, the selected technical methods are different. Traditional metal-coated fabrics are mainly achieved by blending metal fibers, metal ions reduction reaction (electroless plating or electroplating) on the surface of textiles, and controlled magnetic sputtering. Using appropriate post-processing methods, metal-coated textiles can be used as functional fabrics for electromagnetic shielding clothing. Electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding textiles is one of the important applications for metal-coated fabrics, especially for people sensitive to electromagnetic radiation. The primary mechanism of EMI shielding textiles is reflection, absorption, and multi-reflection of the inner material. Certain metals like silver and copper have inherently good antimicrobial properties. Textiles with silver or copper elements integrated on this basis have significantly improved antimicrobial properties. Especially at the current stage of the coronavirus pandemic, the demand for anti-microbial and anti-viral textiles is very urgent. Considering the skin’s sensitivity to these metals, such textiles should be suitable for outer fabrics, and the skin-friendly layer should not contain metal elements. Due to the electrical conductivity of metals, heat is generated when electricity is applied, and Joule's formula can also describe this phenomenon. Through the effective control of metal content and temperature, clothing that generates heat through Joule heat to resist cold weather has gradually entered the market. With intelligent control technology, the clothing temperature can be adjusted through mobile terminals, and the clothing temperature can be automatically adjusted after integrating temperature sensors. Good electrical conductivity also means the transmission of electrical signals. As an essential part of intelligent textiles, metal-coated textiles can effectively transmit electrical signals of human activities, including heartbeat, motion signals, etc., through integration with sensors. Combined with appropriate analysis software, such data can be efficiently acquired. This chapter will introduce the basic knowledge of metalized textiles, including the metallization method, essential characterization, and factors influencing the properties. Additionally, the application of metalized textiles will also be discussed.
... Functional fabrics with nano-metal coatings are a novel integration of materials science and textile technology [1], providing a wide range of possibilities in several industries. The integration of nanotechnology in textile manufacturing presents additional opportunities in terms of profitability [2], durability, and flexibility. ...
... The integration of nanotechnology in textile manufacturing presents additional opportunities in terms of profitability [2], durability, and flexibility. In this scenario, the incorporation of nano-metal coatings has emerged as a pivotal advancement, resulting in a novel generation of flexible textiles with enhanced attributes [3].The application of nano-metal coatings, such as silver, gold, or copper, may impart different qualities to fabric by applying extremely thin layers of these metals [1]. Coating textiles at the nanoscale level results in exceptional properties, including improved conductivity, antimicrobial properties, and greater mechanical strength [4]. ...
Metal-coated textiles are transforming modern industries due to their unique combination of flexibility, conductivity, and multifunctionality. This review provides an in-depth analysis of recent advancements in manufacturing techniques such as sputtering, vapor deposition (including chemical vapor deposition, CVD), electroplating, and electroless plating. We highlight the strengths and limitations of each method, focusing on their suitability for different textile substrates. Key characterization techniques are discussed, including assessments of coating quality, composition, structural integrity, and electrical performance. This review uncovers how metal coatings enhance textile properties like electrical conductivity, thermal reflectivity, and electromagnetic shielding, with specific insights into how these improvements impact real-world applications. Examples include wearable electronics for healthcare monitoring, heat-reflective and EMI-shielding textiles in aerospace, interactive smart garments in fashion, conductive fabrics in automotive safety systems, advanced sensors, and energy-efficient supercapacitors. We also discuss current challenges, particularly regarding durability, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness, and propose strategies to address these issues, including innovations in sustainable coating methods. By exploring both the technological advancements and environmental considerations, this review underscores the pivotal role of metal-coated textiles in driving future innovations across multiple industries.
Bacterial infection is one of the most common complications following the implantation of biomaterials and can lead to aseptic loosening, prosthesis failure, and even morbidity or mortality. Some physicochemical surface properties of metallic implants such as surface topography, roughness, pore size, and degree of porosity, play key roles in bone formation. However, highly porous and roughened surfaces result in weaker mechanical properties and more bacterial adhesion. Due to existing complications in removing bacterial biofilms, more attention is needed to produce porous and/or rough additively manufactured materials that exhibit high biocompatibility and antimicrobial efficacy. The rough surfaces generated by additive manufacturing technologies require researchers to discover methods for biofilm removal via the incorporation of additional biofunctionalities to reduce the rate of bacterial colonization of implants. Furthermore, complex 3D-printed structures fabricated by additive manufacturing methods possess larger surface areas and thus are more susceptible to bacterial infection. This necessitates the development of non-pharmacological techniques to reduce the danger of bacterial colonization. The current review provides insight into the formation of pathogens on the surfaces of additively manufactured metallic biomaterials and discusses active antipathogenic surface modifications to inhibit or control infection.
Smart textiles have recently aroused tremendous interests over the world because of their broad applications in wearable electronics, such as human healthcare, human motion detection, and intelligent robotics. Sensors are the primary components of wearable and flexible electronics, which convert various signals and external stimuli into electrical signals. While traditional electronic sensors based on rigid silicon wafers can hardly conformably attach on the human body, textile materials including fabrics, yarns, and fibers afford promising alternatives due to their characteristics including light weight, flexibility, and breathability. Of fundamental importance are the needs for fabrics simultaneously having high electrical and mechanical performance. This article focused on the hierarchical design of the textile-based flexible sensor from a structure point of view. We first reviewed the selection of newly developed functional materials for textile-based sensors, including metals, conductive polymers, carbon nanomaterials, and other two-dimensional (2D) materials. Then, the hierarchical structure design principles on different levels from microscale to macroscale were discussed in detail. Special emphasis was placed on the microstructure control of fibers, configurational engineering of yarn, and pattern design of fabrics. Finally, the remaining challenges toward industrialization and commercialization that exist to date were presented.
One of the issues in the field of soft-robotic systems is that how to create a fast displacement mechanism which it operates close to nature. This paper presents a deep study of hybrid of mixed electrolysis and fluids chemical reaction (HEFR) method for general applications, considering contraction/expansion of a single/multiple (taped) soft bio-inspired actuators in various conditions and a practical instance of a moving wing mechanism. This research extends the recent study of corresponding author’s team (Zakeri and Zakeri, Deformable airfoil using hybrid of mixed integration electrolysis and fluids chemical reaction (HEFR) artificial muscle technique. Sci Rep 11:5497, 2021) that previous study concentrated on just single bio actuator in deformable airfoil. This work offers a general artificial muscle which it employs the hybrid of mixed electrolysis (electrolysis module with 10 mL capacity without any separation of materials such as O 2 or H 2 ), two fluids for chemical reaction (sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3 (s)) and acetic acid (CH3COOH (l))) and also multilayer soft skin bags (40 × 30 mm). The analyzed parameters are amount of displacement (contraction/expansion) over time (response time), the ratio of output force to total weight and extremely low expense of manufacturing. The main results are as follows: the released energy from 1 mL sodium bicarbonate, 10 mL acetic acid and a 12 V electrolysis module have ability to give a response time less than 1 s (25 mm expansion and 4 mm contraction) with 12 W power consumption and also bio actuator can easily displace a 250 g object (total weight of components is almost 33 g). Also, it has been shown that the response time of mixed electrolysis in the proposed inactive solution (without any fresh chemical reaction) will be nine times to pure water. In the active solution (refresh chemical reaction), response time of HEFR will be accelerated 2.44 times to pure chemical reaction. By applying the multilayer soft skin bags or soft actuators (multi contraction and multi expansion model), a practical movable flapping wing has been presented which a full cycle of flapping would take 2 s. The proposed method has ability to show a quick response time, without making any noise, very low construction cost and practical for general and frequent uses.
Advanced engineering applications necessitate developing a new class of surface coatings that protect the surface components in these applications while also meeting the conflicting requirements for the necessary properties to improve the surface performance of many parts in biomedical, aerospace, electronics, automotive, marine, oil and gas pipelines, as well as electronics fields. However, surface coatings on many constituents have remained a difficult task for researchers due to the synchronous requirement for opposing characteristics in the same coating. In recent years, functionally graded coatings (FGCs) have been widely used to protect surfaces through achieving specific characteristics from one location to another to be suitable for different operating conditions. Deposition of FGCs with gradient behavior and high accuracy on the surface of substrate material is a versatile and successful approach for enhancing characteristics of the substrate material, primarily to increase its functionality and life span. Therefore, this review paper presents a detailed analysis of the extensively used production techniques to develop FGCs based on the process state during deposition. Also, the microstructure features, mechanical properties, wear resistance, and corrosion behavior of the produced FGCs have been explored in detail. Furthermore, the current review paper focuses on understanding FGC classifications and applications, as well as research gaps and future directions for these coatings. The findings of this paper are expected to give researchers and designers in this field a variety of options for permanent surfaces protection via following a well-organized review methodology.
Wearable sensors have become part of our daily life for health monitoring. The detection of moisture content is critical for many applications. In the present research, textile-based embroidered sensors were developed that can be integrated with a bandage for wound management purposes. The sensor comprised an interdigitated electrode embroidered on a cotton substrate with silver-tech 150 and HC 12 threads, respectively, that have silver coated continuous filaments and 100% polyamide with silver-plated yarn. The said sensor is a capacitive sensor with some leakage. The change in the dielectric constant of the substrate as a result of moisture affects the value of capacitance and, thus, the admittance of the sensor. The moisture sensor’s operation is verified by measuring its admittance at 1 MHz and the change in moisture level (1–50) µL. It is observed that the sensitivity of both sensors is comparable. The identically fabricated sensors show similar response and sensitivity while wash test shows the stability of sensor after washing. The developed sensor is also able to detect the moisture caused by both artificial sweat and blood serum, which will be of value in developing new sensors tomorrow for smart wound-dressing applications.
In this study, we developed multifunctional and durable textile sensors. The fabrics were coated with metal in two steps. At first, pretreatment of fabric was performed, and then copper and silver particles were coated by the chemical reduction method. Hence, the absorbance/adherence of metal was confirmed by the deposition of particles on microfibers. The particles filled the micro spaces between the fibers and made the continuous network to facilitate the electrical conduction. Secondly, further electroplating of the metal was performed to make the compact layer on the particle- coated fabric. The fabrics were analyzed against electrical resistivity and electromagnetic shielding over the frequency range of 200 MHz to 1500 MHz. The presence of metal coating was confirmed from the surface microstructure of coated fabric samples examined by scanning electron microscopy, EDS, and XRD tests. For optimized plating parameters, the minimum surface resistivity of 67 Ω, EMI shielding of 66 dB and Ohmic heating of 118 °C at 10 V was observed. It was found that EMI SH was increased with an increase in the deposition rate of the metal. Furthermore, towards the end, the durability of conductive textiles was observed against severe washing. It was observed that even after severe washing there was an insignificant increase in electrical resistivity and good retention of the metal coating, as was also proven with SEM images.
This paper reviews some prominent applications and approaches to developing smart fabrics for wearable technology. The importance of flexible and electrically conductive textiles in the emerging body-centric sensing and wireless communication systems is highlighted. Examples of applications are discussed with a focus on a range of textile-based sensors and antennas. Developments in alternative materials and structures for producing flexible and conductive textiles are reviewed, including inherently conductive polymers, carbon-based materials, and nano-enhanced composite fibers and fibrous structures.
The rapid growth in wearable technology has recently stimulated the development of conductive textiles for broad application purposes, i.e., wearable electronics, heat generators, sensors, electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding, optoelectronic and photonics. Textile material, which was always considered just as the interface between the wearer and the environment, now plays a more active role in different sectors, such as sport, healthcare, security, entertainment, military, and technical sectors, etc. This expansion in applied development of e-textiles is governed by a vast amount of research work conducted by increasingly interdisciplinary teams and presented systematic review highlights and assesses, in a comprehensive manner, recent research in the field of conductive textiles and their potential application for wearable electronics (so called e-textiles), as well as development of advanced application techniques to obtain conductivity, with emphasis on metal-containing coatings. Furthermore, an overview of protective compounds was provided, which are suitable for the protection of metallized textile surfaces against corrosion, mechanical forces, abrasion, and other external factors, influencing negatively on the adhesion and durability of the conductive layers during textiles’ lifetime (wear and care). The challenges, drawbacks and further opportunities in these fields are also discussed critically.
The ever‐growing demand for portable and wearable electronics has driven increased interest in flexible lithium‐ion batteries (LIBs) and supercapacitors (SCs). However, endowing conventional LIBs and SCs with good flexibility and high energy density is challenging, as metal foils and rigid electrodes are easily fractured during flexing. In recent years, textile composite electrodes (TCEs), electrodes coated onto or grown on conductive textile current collectors have shown great promise for application in flexible, high‐capacity/capacitance, and long‐cycle‐life textile‐based electrochemical energy storage devices (TEESDs). This Essay summarizes the advantages of TCEs compared to conventional metal‐foil‐supported electrodes (MFEs) and discusses the integration of TCEs into TEESDs as flexible LIBs and SCs for wearable applications. Finally, the challenges associated with TCEs and TEESDs are discussed alongside an analysis of possible solutions.
In the last three decades, the development of new kinds of textiles, so-called smart and interactive textiles, has continued unabated. Smart textile materials and their applications are set to drastically boom as the demand for these textiles has been increasing by the emergence of new fibers, new fabrics, and innovative processing technologies. Moreover, people are eagerly demanding washable, flexible, lightweight, and robust e-textiles. These features depend on the properties of the starting material, the post-treatment, and the integration techniques. In this work, a comprehensive review has been conducted on the integration techniques of conductive materials in and onto a textile structure. The review showed that an e-textile can be developed by applying a conductive component on the surface of a textile substrate via plating, printing, coating, and other surface techniques, or by producing a textile substrate from metals and inherently conductive polymers via the creation of fibers and construction of yarns and fabrics with these. In addition, conductive filament fibers or yarns can be also integrated into conventional textile substrates during the fabrication like braiding, weaving, and knitting or as a post-fabrication of the textile fabric via embroidering. Additionally, layer-by-layer 3D printing of the entire smart textile components is possible, and the concept of 4D could play a significant role in advancing the status of smart textiles to a new level.
Currently, scientists are striving to produce innovative textile materials characterized by special properties. Therefore, attempts have been made to use physical and chemical vapor deposition techniques to modify the surface of textile materials, i.e., nonwovens, fabrics, and knitted fabrics. By using these techniques for modifying the basic materials, researchers have obtained textiles with novel properties, which are used in shielding materials, textronics, or clothing, as well as in specialized accessories. The PVD process can be applied for almost all materials. The physical vapor deposition process allows for obtaining layers of different thicknesses and with various physical and chemical properties. This article is a review of the latest state of the art on the use of various methods of physical vapor deposition in textiles destined for different purposes.
Adopting magnetron sputtering continuous automatic production line equipment for industrial production, polyester fabrics as the substrates were coated with nano-Ag/TiO2 composite films prepared by direct current sputtering method and direct current/radio frequency reactive sputtering method, respectively. The microstructure of Ag/TiO2 composite films deposited on the surface of the fabrics was dense and uniform. Structural colors were generated on the surface of the fabrics coated with the composite films and the coloring mechanism was consistent with the single-layer film interference principle. The color fastness, mechanical properties, comfortable properties were not significantly changed and had better antistatic property, anti-ultraviolet property, and antibacterial property compared with the original polyester fabrics. Therefore, the multi-functional and structurally colored fabrics can be prepared by magnetron sputtering technology, and can achieve industrial production, and have wide application prospects in apparel, home textile, and so on.
Integration of advanced nanogenerator technology with conventional textile processes fosters the emergence of textile‐based nanogenerators (NGs), which will inevitably promote the rapid development and widespread applications of next‐generation wearable electronics and multifaceted artificial intelligence systems. NGs endow smart textiles with mechanical energy harvesting and multifunctional self‐powered sensing capabilities, while textiles provide a versatile flexible design carrier and extensive wearable application platform for their development. However, due to the lack of an effective interactive platform and communication channel between researchers specializing in NGs and those good at textiles, it is rather difficult to achieve fiber/fabric‐based NGs with both excellent electrical output properties and outstanding textile‐related performances. To this end, a critical review is presented on the current state of the arts of wearable fiber/fabric‐based piezoelectric nanogenerators and triboelectric nanogenerators with respect to basic classifications, material selections, fabrication techniques, structural designs, and working principles, as well as potential applications. Furthermore, the potential difficulties and tough challenges that can impede their large‐scale commercial applications are summarized and discussed. It is hoped that this review will not only deepen the ties between smart textiles and wearable NGs, but also push forward further research and applications of future wearable fiber/fabric‐based NGs.
The programmable nature of smart textiles makes them an indispensable part of an emerging new technology field. Smart textile‐integrated microelectronic systems (STIMES), which combine microelectronics and technology such as artificial intelligence and augmented or virtual reality, have been intensively explored. A vast range of research activities have been reported. Many promising applications in healthcare, the internet of things (IoT), smart city management, robotics, etc., have been demonstrated around the world. A timely overview and comprehensive review of progress of this field in the last five years are provided. Several main aspects are covered: functional materials, major fabrication processes of smart textile components, functional devices, system architectures and heterogeneous integration, wearable applications in human and nonhuman‐related areas, and the safety and security of STIMES. The major types of textile‐integrated nonconventional functional devices are discussed in detail: sensors, actuators, displays, antennas, energy harvesters and their hybrids, batteries and supercapacitors, circuit boards, and memory devices. Smart textile‐integrated microelectronic systems (STIMES) have been extensively explored for their potential in health monitoring, the internet of things (IoT), smart cities, and robotics. Recent examples of functional materials, major fabrication processes, functional devices, system architectures and heterogeneous integration, and applications of smart textile components are presented. The safety and security of STIMES are also discussed.
This research was aimed at processing of metallic fiber hybrid spun yarns consisting of polyester/
stainless steel and viscose/stainless steel staple fibers to achieve better electrical conductivity.
Conventional ring spinning machine and ring twister machine were used to produce the single and
plied yarns respectively. The linear electrical resistance of yarns was analyzed with reference to the three
levels of twist multiplier (TM) for same yarn count, three levels of yarn fineness (Ne) at the same TM
level, and number of plies for the same final yarn count. These results showed that by increasing twist,
the electrical conductivity of yarn was increased. However, yarn fineness was in inverse relation with the
electrical conductivity of yarns. The effect of yarn plying and twisting to produce the Ne 10s yarn was
also found critical in governing the electrical properties. The electrical conductivity of viscose and
stainless steel hybrid yarn was found more sensitive to increase with an increase in relative humidity
contrary to that of polyester and stainless steel hybrid yarns. The findings of the study are significant to
produce the hybrid spun conductive yarns for their potential applications in a variety of tailor-made
functional, protective and smart textiles.
The applications of magnetron sputtering technology on the surface coating of fabrics have attracted more and more attention from researchers. Over the past 15 years, researches on magnetron sputtering coated fabrics have been mainly focused on electromagnetic shielding, bacterial resistance, hydrophilic and hydrophobic properties and structural color etc. In this review, recent progress of the technology is discussed in detail, and the common target materials, technologies and functions and characterization of coated fabrics are summarized and analyzed. Finally, the existing problems and future prospects of this developing field are briefly proposed and discussed.
The intent of this paper is to provide an overview of basic concepts, types, techniques, and experimental studies of the current state-of-the-art Frequency Selective Surfaces (FSSs). FSS is a periodic surface with identical two-dimensional arrays of elements arranged on a dielectric substrate. An incoming plane wave will either be transmitted (passband) or reflected back (stopband), completely or partially, depending on the nature of array element. This occurs when the frequency of electromagnetic (EM) wave matches with the resonant frequency of the FSS elements. Therefore, an FSS is capable of passing or blocking the EM waves of certain range of frequencies in the free space; consequently, identified as spatial filters. Nowadays, FSSs have been studied comprehensively and huge growth is perceived in the field of its designing and implementation for different practical applications at frequency ranges of microwave to optical. In this review article, we illustrate the recent researches on different categories of FSSs based on structure design, array element used, and applications. We also focus on theoretical breakthroughs with fabrication techniques, experimental verifications of design examples as well as prospects and challenges, especially in the microwave regime. We emphasize their significant performance parameters, particularly focusing on how advancement in this field could facilitate innovation in advanced electromagnetics.
Polyaniline (PANI) with different nanostructures has been synthesized through a simple chemical oxidation method without using any hard or soft templates. A correlation between structure, chemical construction, electrical conductivity, and electromagnetic shielding properties were extensively investigated. The obtained PANI nanostructures exhibit various morphologies by just simply changing the doping acids. The PANI doped with hydrochloric acid (denoted as PANI-HCl) and doped with camphorsulfonic acid (denoted as PANI-CSA) exhibite the “holothurian-like” morphology, while the PANI doped with phosphoric acid (denoted as PANI-H3PO4) presents the nanofiber structure. The “holothurian-like” structure showed larger diameters and length than the nanofibers. During the three samples, the PANI-CSA exhibits the highest electrical conductivity (1.28 ± 0.17 S cm⁻¹) due to the large oxidation extent, crystallinity, and crystallite size. An excellent electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding effectiveness (SE) as 20.7 dB of PANI-CSA was achieved with the thickness of only 0.35 mm. All these samples present an absorption-dominated shielding mechanism. Moreover, the SE values obtained from the experiments are higher than the theoretical calculations. All these above results indicated that the EMI shielding performance and dielectric permittivity were strongly affected by the microstructure and the chemical construction. We believe that this one-step procedure represents a promising protocol to control the nanostructures and properties of PANI for applications as advanced EMI shielding materials. © 2018 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature
The present work deals with the development of electrically conductive cotton fabrics by in-situ deposition of copper particles. The dynamic light scattering, scanning electron microscope, and X-ray diffraction techniques were employed to study the morphology of deposited copper particles. The utility of conductive fabrics was analyzed for electromagnetic shielding ability over frequency range of 30 MHz to 1.5 GHz. The electromagnetic interference shielding was found to increase with increase in number of dips, which was attributed to increased reflection of EM waves due to dense, uniform, and percolated network of conductive copper particles on the surface. The sample produced from 100 and 150 dips exhibited the maximum shielding ability of 10 dB and 13 dB, respectively. Furthermore, the role of deposited copper particles on antibacterial properties was examined against pathogenic bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. The S. aureus showed more sensitivity towards copper particles as zone of inhibitions increased from 9.5 to 15.5 mm. At the end, the durability of fabrics was examined against washing after application of binder. The fabrics showed good retention of the copper particles, proved by scanning electron microscopic microstructures and small loss in the conductivity of the material after washing.
The electromagnetic interference shielding efficiency measurement needs to use special devices and in addition results are dramatically affected by applied measuring method. Measurements of surface or volume resistivity are simpler. It is known from theory that it is possible to measure characteristics of electrical part of electromagnetic field only at sufficiently high frequencies and therefore there should be mathematical relation between total shielding effectiveness SE [dB] and fabric resistivity or conductivity. One of modern application of materials with increased electromagnetic shielding efficiency is not only technical protection, but also protection of human being while operating specific electric equipments. The main aim of this work is investigation of the form of relation between electrical characteristics and total shielding effectiveness SE for special types of fabrics containing extremely thin metal fibers in its structure.
Stainless steel fiber is a new sort of soft industrial material developed in the past decades. The pure stainless fiber has a number of outstanding properties and is getting wider range of application in textiles which are used as industrial textiles. The tensile properties between stainless steel fiber and traditional textile fibers are quiet different. The property differences between stainless fiber and common textile fiber made the textile processing of stainless fiber difficult. Based on the testing of breaking force, breaking strength and breaking elongation rate, this paper analyzed the tensile characteristic of stainless fiber and discussed its effect on yarn quality.
Electronic Textiles (e-textiles) are fabrics that feature electronics and interconnections woven into them, presenting physical flexibility and typical size that cannot be achieved with other existing electronic manufacturing techniques. Components and interconnections are intrinsic to the fabric and thus are less visible and not susceptible of becoming tangled or snagged by surrounding objects. E-textiles can also more easily adapt to fast changes in the computational and sensing requirements of any specific application, this one representing a useful feature for power management and context awareness. The vision behind wearable computing foresees future electronic systems to be an integral part of our everyday outfits. Such electronic devices have to meet special requirements concerning wearability. Wearable systems will be characterized by their ability to automatically recognize the activity and the behavioral status of their own user as well as of the situation around her/him, and to use this information to adjust the systems' configuration and functionality. This review focuses on recent advances in the field of Smart Textiles and pays particular attention to the materials and their manufacturing process. Each technique shows advantages and disadvantages and our aim is to highlight a possible trade-off between flexibility, ergonomics, low power consumption, integration and eventually autonomy.
Fiber-based structures are highly desirable for wearable electronics that are expected to be light-weight, long-lasting, flexible, and conformable. Many fibrous structures have been manufactured by well-established lost-effective textile processing technologies, normally at ambient conditions. The advancement of nanotechnology has made it feasible to build electronic devices directly on the surface or inside of single fibers, which have typical thickness of several to tens microns. However, imparting electronic functions to porous, highly deformable and three-dimensional fiber assemblies and maintaining them during wear represent great challenges from both views of fundamental understanding and practical implementation. This article attempts to critically review the current state-of-arts with respect to materials, fabrication techniques, and structural design of devices as well as applications of the fiber-based wearable electronic products. In addition, this review elaborates the performance requirements of the fiber-based wearable electronic products, especially regarding the correlation among materials, fiber/textile structures and electronic as well as mechanical functionalities of fiber-based electronic devices. Finally, discussions will be presented regarding to limitations of current materials, fabrication techniques, devices concerning manufacturability and performance as well as scientific understanding that must be improved prior to their wide adoption.
The history of metal fiber production is outlined. Metal fiber types are explained together with the relevant production technologies for different fiber types. Further processing is described, typical properties and applications are given and the market is evaluated followed by a list of the relevant metal fiber producers and processing companies.KeywordsSteelCopperSilverAlloyProductionPropertiesMarketManufacturers
The changing preferences drive the future of textile products from mass produced to custom-built outputs. The predominant long-term development trend in the field is the integration of fields of chemistry, physics, and engineering for the construction of new textile structures. These clothing textiles are expected to be capable of adaptation to changes in the environment. These require special technical textiles with unique properties necessary for their applications. The first part of this chapter briefly discusses the current trends in development and research in textile structures, focusing on the needs of society and new effects. The second part presents selected textiles for different purposes and their practical applications, and the third part discusses the specific features and problems of textile design.
Electromagnetic (EM) radiation pollution is increasing attention due to the popularization of electronic equipment. In recent years, various nanomaterials have been widely designed and developed for the enhancement of their EM interference shielding effectiveness (EMI SE). However, large amounts of reported reviews focus on carbon materials and transition metal carbides (e.g., MXenes), while the applications of metal nanocomposites in EM interference shielding are still suffering from the insufficient systematic analysis. Therefore, this paper provides comprehensive information on material selection, whole structural design, engineering preparation schemes and the latest cutting-edge techniques to elaborate the metal nanocomposites (thickness ≤1 mm) for EMI SE. We firstly describe the principle of EMI SE and structure design. Then we also investigate the material selection based on metals such as silver, copper, nickel, and their combinations with carbon materials or other materials. Finally, we compare the strengths and weaknesses of various preparation schemes and identify the state-of-the-art cutting-edge methodologies.
Currently, there is an imperative demand for developing a novel flexible heater with high adhesion, breathability, and extreme condition resistance, such as ultra-high temperatures and even fire. Herein, a high-adhesion, flame-retardancy, and anti-bacteria copper nanoparticles networks/nylon 6 woven fabric (CNNs/NWF) wearable heater with a “sandwich-like” structure has been designed and fabricated based on phatic acid/aminopropyltriethoxysilane (PA/APTES) hybrid coating. On the one hand, the CNNs/NWF wearable heater exhibited superb electrothermal behavior working at a peak temperature of 208.8 °C powered with 2.0 V, better than that of wearable heaters in the recently reported literature. On the other hand, the vertical burning test showed that the heater possesses splendid flame retardancy. Furthermore, the PA/APTES coating could deposit a nanoscale porous protective film on the surface of CNNs/NWF, which imparts the heater with relatively excellent oxidation resistance and breathability. In addition, the antibacterial efficiency against Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) still reached 100% after 50 times of standard washing and being electrified at 2.0 V for 5 min, keeping humans away from the threat of bacterial infections. We think that the heater in this research could be extended to wearable heating devices.
Conductive fibers are an important part of wearable electronic devices or smart textiles while several grand challenges have to be still overcome. In this study, we describe a simple and efficient method to prepare a copper layer on nylon 6 fabrics by using a pH-responsive styrene (St)-co-N, N-dimethyl-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA)/Pd nanocomposite. The St-co-DMAEMA/Pd can effectively enhance the adhesion between the copper layer and the substrate. Nylon 6 fabric is treated with an optimal acid concentration of 2.0M before electroless deposition. The pretreatment will promote the affinity between the nanocomposite catalyst and the modified nylon 6 fabric and form a more favorable environment for copper deposition. Furthermore, the process yields excellent copper deposition (1.59 μm) onto nylon 6 fabric after electroless plating for 20 min. The copper layer formed by the method has a low resistance of about 2.51 Ω and the variation of resistance before and after bending test is small. In addition, the characteristic of pH responsive copolymers (St-co-DMAEMA) that displays high hydrophilicity at low pH values and high hydrophobicity at high pH values is crucial for electroless copper plating. This facile method is successfully applied in the metallization of nylon 6 fabric.
Reduced graphene oxide (rGO), carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and copper nanoparticles were supersonically sprayed onto a fabric to yield a wearable energy storage device with multifunctional sensing capabilities. This wearable electronic device is superhydrophobic and antibacterial, demonstrating its suitability for smart sportswear, futuristic military uniforms, healthcare monitoring, human-machine interfaces, and intelligent soft robotics. Both rGO and the CNTs contribute to the double-layer capacitance properties, owing to the accumulation of electrostatic charges, whereas copper enhances the charge transfer and pseudocapacitance via redox reactions with the electrolyte. The fabric is bendable, stretchable, and durable with respect to external mechanical stress. Because of the supersonic impact during coating, the deposited materials adhere well to the fabric surface to retain the durable mechanical properties. The rGO/CNT/Cu-coated fabric produced thermal energy by Joule heating upon application of an electrical voltage. This metallized fabric is also capable of sensing the surrounding temperature and variations in the external strain. The antibacterial properties of the fabric ensure that harmful microorganisms are destroyed, potentially preventing the spread of disease. All of these unique properties of the metallized fabric make it suitable for use in future electronic textiles, which are useful for energy-storing, heating, sensing, water-repellent, and antiviral applications.
Passive daytime radiative cooling (PDRC) materials have attracted increasing attention because of the potential in energy saving and the possibility to meet the need of smart clothes. In this work, we fabricate a multifunctional cotton fabric for radiative outdoor cooling using spectrally selective aluminum phosphate particles. The fabric is further modified to be superhydrophobic by introducing a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) layer, with the water contact angle (WCA) of 151.9 ± 0.9° and the sliding angle of 1.3 ± 0.3°. By reflecting the sunlight (the reflectivity is near 90%) and radiating the heat to the outer space (the emissivity is about 0.92) of the coating, this cotton fabric can reach an average temperature drop of ∼ 5.4 °C compares to the bare cotton, and enable human body to avoid overheating by 1.0 °C ∼ 4.4 °C under direct sunlight. After 20 times washing, the WCA decreases slightly from 151.9° to 143.9° while the sliding angle of water increases from 1.3° to 5.3°, the cooling temperature still remanins ∼ 4.2 °C, demonstrating great washing durability of the prepared cotton fabric. Owing to these superior capability and simple production, this superhydrophobic textile for passive daytime radiative cooling is promising to be widely used in outdoor coats and other facilities.
Cotton fabrics exhibiting superhydrophobic and antibacterial properties were prepared through sonochemical coating technique. Substantial amount of copper nanoparticles (Cu-NPs) could be deposited on the cotton fabric through sonochemical process using ultrasonic irradiation in water. The effects of Cu-NPs concentration, sonication time and NaOH concentration on the Cu-NPs coating behavior were investigated by FE-SEM observation, EDS elemental analysis and contact angle measurement. Regarding the media for the sonochemical process, alkaline solution was more effective than distilled water due to mercerization effect to make cotton swelled and soft. It was also found that Lotus effect (superhydrophobicity) could be successfully introduced to the hydrophilic cotton fabrics ascribed to micro- and nano-bumps formed by Cu-NPs. The maximum contact angle obtained in the study was 145 degree for the sample coated at 20 mM Cu-NPs and 15 wt% NaOH, respectively. Moreover, antibacterial properties could be added to the fabric by coating of Cu-NPs without further treatment.
Due to various difficult-to-machine materials and increasingly severe machining conditions, more and more attention has been paid to the physical vapor deposition (PVD) technology in recent decades to deposit hard coatings on cutting tools. Combined with the status of industrial application of PVD technology, this paper reviews the main PVD techniques for coated cutting tools from the perspective of the overall PVD coating equipment, including cathodic arc evaporation and magnetron sputtering as well as their hybrid techniques, and the plasma etching which is critical for coating adhesion strength is also involved. With regard to hard coating deposition on cutting tools, the basic principle, cathode configuration, magnetron and power supply are outlined. Issues related to target ionization ratio, coating deposition rate, coating properties and industrial application of numerous PVD techniques are also highlighted. On plasma etching, inert gas ion etching and metal ions etching are discussed. Finally, this paper summarizes and prospects the PVD technology used for coated cutting tools.
Purpose
With the popularization of electronic products, the electromagnetic radiation pollution has been the fourth largest pollution after water, air and noise pollution. Therefore, electromagnetic shielding property of textiles is attracting more attention. In this paper, the properties of electromagnetic shielding yarns and fabrics were studied.
Design/methodology/approach
Ten kinds of yarn, stainless steel short fiber and polyester blend yarn with three different blending ratios T/S 90/10, T/S 80/20 and T/S 70/30, stainless steel short fiber, polyester and cotton blend yarn with blending ratio C/T/S 35/35/30, core-spun yarn with one 30 um stainless steel filament C/T28tex/S(30 um), core-spun yarn with two 15 um stainless steel filaments (C/T28tex/S(15 um)/S(15 um)), twin-core-spun yarn with one 30 um stainless steel filament and one 50D spandex filament C/T28tex/S(30 um)/SP(50D), sirofil wrapped yarn with one 30 um stainless steel filament feeding from left S(30 um)+C/T28tex, sirofil wrapped yarn with one 30 um stainless steel filament feeding from right C/T28tex+S(30 um), sirofil wrapped yarn with two 15 um stainless steel filaments feeding from two sides S(15 um)+C/T28tex+ S(15 um), were spun. The qualities of spun yarns were measured. Then, for analyzing the electromagnetic shielding properties of fabrics made of different spun yarns, 20 kinds of fabrics were woven.
Findings
The tested results show that comparing to the T/S 80/20 blend yarn, the resistivity of composite yarns with the same ratio of the stainless steel filament is smaller. The possible reason is that comparing to the stainless steel short fiber, the conductivity of stainless steel filament is better because of the continuous distribution of stainless steel in the filament. Comparing with the core-spun yarn, the conductivity of the sirofil wrapped yarn is a little better. Comparing to the fabric woven by the blend yarn, the electromagnetic shielding of the fabric woven by the composite yarn is better, and comparing to the fabric woven by the core-spun yarn, the electromagnetic shielding of the fabric woven by the sirofil yarn is a little better. The possible reason is that the conduction network can be produced by the stainless steel filament wrapped on the staple fiber yarn surface in the fabric, and the electromagnetic wave can be transmitted in the network.
Originality/value
In this paper, the properties of electromagnetic shielding yarns and fabrics were studied. Ten kinds of yarn, including three stainless steel short fiber and polyester blend yarns, one stainless steel short fiber, polyester and cotton blend yarn, two core-spun yarns, one twin-core-spun yarn, three sirofil wrapped yarn, were spun. Then, for analyzing the electromagnetic shielding properties of fabrics made of different spun yarns, 20 kinds of fabrics were woven. The effects of fabric warp and weft densities, fabric structures, yarn kinds, yarn distributions in the fabric on electromagnetic shielding were analyzed.
Flexible and interlaced-designed triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) are acquiring an enormous research interest nowadays, due to their facile fabrication techniques and easy employment as a power source for wearable/portable electronic devices. Herein, we proposed polypyrrole (PPy)-based flexible and wearable TENG with excellent electrical output performance and robustness. The flexible interlaced micro-fibrous mesh cotton fabric was used as a support frame to deposit PPy, by an in-situ chemical polymerization process. Such PPy coated cotton textile ([email protected]) was utilized as an electrode to construct a single-electrode mode TENG. Furthermore, a sandpaper-assisted microtextured polydimethylsiloxane layer was developed on the top of [email protected] via simple soft-imprint lithography technique and it was employed as a tribo-negative friction layer of TENG. The resultant PPy-based wearable single-electrode mode TENG (PPy-WSEM-TENG) device can efficiently convert the mechanical energy into electricity while making continuous contacts/separations with counter friction objects like dialysis cellulose membrane and human skin (i.e., tribo-positive friction layers). Moreover, the influence of external pressing force and load resistance on the electrical output performance of PPy-WSEM-TENG was analyzed. This device exhibited robustness characteristics even after long-term cyclic operations and also generated an electrical output by gently touching with the human hand. For commercial applications, the as-fabricated PPy-WSEM-TENG was effectively employed as a self-powered source to drive portable electronic devices as well as light-emitting diodes.
Stainless steel (SS) has been widely used as a material for fabricating cardiovascular stents/valves, orthopedic prosthesis, and other devices and implants used in biomedicine due to its malleability and resistance to corrosion and fatigue. Despite its good mechanical properties, SS (as other metals) lacks biofunctionality. To be successfully used as a biomaterial, SS must be made resistant to the biological environment by increasing its anti-fouling properties, preventing biofilm formation (passive surface modification), and imparting functionality for eluting a specific drug or capturing selected cells (active surface modification); these features depend on the final application. Various physico-chemical techniques, including plasma vapor deposition, electrochemical treatment, and attachment of different linkers that add functional groups, are used to obtain SS with increased corrosion resistance, improved osseointegration capabilities, added hemocompatibility, and enhanced antibacterial properties. Existing literature on this topic is extensive and has not been covered in an integrated way in previous reviews. This review aims to fill this gap, by surveying the literature on SS surface modification methods, as well as modification routes tailored for specific biomedical applications.
Statement of significance:
Stainless steel (SS) is widely used in many biomedical applications including bone implants and cardiovascular stents due to its good mechanical properties, biocompatibility and low price. Surface modification allows improving its characteristics without compromising its important bulk properties. SS with improved blood compatibility (blood contacting implants), enhanced ability to resist bacterial infection (long-term devices), better integration with a tissue (bone implants) are examples of successful SS surface modifications. Existing literature on this topic is extensive and has not been covered in an integrated way in previous reviews. This review paper aims to fill this gap, by surveying the literature on SS surface modification methods, as well as to provide guidance for selecting appropriate modification routes tailored for specific biomedical applications.
This paper presents the continuation of research on shielding efficiency (SE) of electromagnetic radiation (EMR) by woven fabric made of cotton (warps and wefts) and a hybrid yarn (wefts). This hybrid yarn was made of stainless steel yarn by Bekinox wrapped with an enamelled copper wire from Synflex Elektro GmbH, Germany. The pitch of copper coil on a hybrid yarn equals 3 mm. The wefts were introduced into the fabric in the following order: 1 hybrid yarn, 1 cotton yarn, 1 hybrid yarn, 1 cotton yarn, etc. The construction of this specific fabric was proven to be the most efficient in terms of the hybrid weft construction and the fabric construction to shield EMR among other previously tested fabrics with different weft configuration. The current study proposes to verify the effect of the number of layers of the fabrics and their mutual configuration on the final SE of the multilayered set. Some of the most interesting findings of this study are that increasing the number of layers placed on top of one another with an offset angle of 0 to more than two does not provide a higher SE; however, using three such layers provides an SE of 56 dB, which is over two times higher than that provided by a single layer. Increasing the number of layers of fabric aligned at an angle of 45 provides a higher SE only for a frequency of 30 MHz.
Chapter 6 talks about the different types of metallic fibers used in composites materials. Properties of metallic fibers, fabrication of composites, and the properties and application of these composites are discussed in detail.
Textile metallization involves the deposition of metallic particles on textile surfaces thus creating metallic-coated fabrics. At present, four types of metallized processing technologies are applied to textiles and these include vacuum deposition, ion plating, electroplating and electroless plating. In vacuum deposition, also known as vacuum metallization, material from a thermal vaporization source reaches the substrate without collision with gas molecules in the space between the source and substrate. With ion coating, metal coating is produced by the adhesion of evaporated metal particles onto substrate surface. In electroplating, electrically conductive textile materials are coated a layer of metal particles with the use of electrical current. Finally in electroless plating, electric fields are absent thus producing uniform plating thickness.
To obtain an efficient approach to metalize silk fabric, a novel method was explored and silver-plated silk was prepared. In this study, tris (2-carboxyethyl) phosphine (TCEP) was utilized as a reducing agent to generate thiol groups on the silk surface. These thiol groups react with silver ions to form metal complexes, which were used as catalytic seeds and successfully initiated electroless silver plating. A variety of methods, including Raman, XRD, TG, SEM and EDS were used to characterize the intermediates and final products. The results showed that a uniform and smooth metal layer could be obtained when compared with that without TCEP pretreatment. The silver-plated silk fabric exhibited good electrical conductivity and high anti-bacterial properties. These attractive features enable this conductive silk fabric to be a good candidate as a biomedical material.
Having electrical conductivity is often a prerequisite for many smart and intelligent textiles. Conventional textiles are non-conductive materials. One of the approaches to make a textile item electrically conductive is conductive coating. This chapter introduces some practical methods to impart conductivity to textiles, including metal coating and conducting polymer coating. It highlights the principles, coating methods, performance and applications of textile materials coated with conducting polymers such as polypyrrole.
Materials with electromagnetic screening capabilities are widely used to attenuate the strength of electromagnetic fields in certain areas. Nowadays, instead of metallic shields it is more common to use various types of textile materials with the addition of special ingredients. These materials have good mechanical properties, such as being flexible and lightweight. Depending on the technology used to manufacture the different materials, we have observed the different proportions of two physical phenomena, absorption and reflection. The definition of screening effectiveness (SE) is directly related to an infinitely spread screening layer. The results of SE measurements depend on the method, frequency range, size of sample and properties of the material itself. The current state of work on standardisation and measurement methods for the SE of thin materials are also presented in this paper. The most important part of the paper is a discussion about the scope of application of the presented methods, their limitations and the possibilities for comparisons of the results.
Examples are presented of three new methods for preparing electromagnetic (EM) textiles for a variety of applications. These are metalized textiles containing pores and meshes, textiles with planar periodic structures, and space-structured textiles. Firstly, an aluminum foil model with pores was prepared, then metalized textiles with pores, and finally silver-coated nylon net fabrics, and the relationship between shielding effectiveness (SE) and pore structure was studied. The size of the pores and the distance between them obviously influence the SE, and in particular the pores on the metalized fabrics decrease the SE. Secondly, the factors affecting the frequency selective surface (FSS) of the metal were analyzed and a FSS textile was prepared as a band-pass filter. The FSS fabric with non-conductive periodic units on the conductive fabric surface showed good resonance peaks. Finally, three types of space-structured EM textiles, including a plush fabric, a warp-knitted spacer fabric, and a velvet fabric were constructed using different conductive yarn blends. The EM reflection coefficient curves showed that these structures also obviously affected the EM properties. The three types of new EM fabrics were soft and light compared with traditional metallic EM devices. There is still, however, a long way to go to establish the exact relationship between the structure and EM properties of these new EM textiles.
The ever increasing resistance of pathogens towards antibiotics has caused serious health problems in the recent years. It has been shown that by combining modern technologies such as nanotechnology and material science with intrinsic antimicrobial activity of the metals, novel applications for these substances could be identified. According to the reports, metal and metal oxide nanoparticles represent a group of materials which were investigated in respect to their antimicrobial effects. In the present review, we focused on the recent research works concerning antimicrobial activity of metal and metal oxide nanoparticles together with their mechanism of action. Reviewed literature indicated that the particle size was the essential parameter which determined the antimicrobial effectiveness of the metal nanoparticles. Combination therapy with the metal nanoparticles might be one of the possible strategies to overcome the current bacterial resistance to the antibacterial agents. However, further studies should be performed to minimize the toxicity of metal and metal oxide nanoparticles to apply as proper alternatives for antibiotics and disinfectants especially in biomedical applications.
A detailed study of electromagnetic shielding effectiveness (EMSE) of woven fabrics made of polyester and stainless steel/polyester blended conductive yarn was presented in this research work. Fabrics with different structures were analyzed and their shielding behavior was reported under different frequencies. Shielding efficiency of fabric was analyzed by vector network analyzer in the frequency range of 300 kHz to 1.5 GHz using coaxial transmission line holder. The effects of different fabric parameters such as weft density, proportion of conductive weft yarn, proportion of stainless steel content, grid openness, weave pattern and number of fabric layers on EMSE of fabrics were studied. The EMSE of fabric was found to be increased with increase in proportion of conductive yarn in the weft way. With increase in overall stainless-steel content in the fabric, the EMSE of fabric was increased. As such weave is considered, it did not have significant effect on EMSE of fabrics. But fabric with lower openness and aperture ratio showed better conducting network, hence better shielding. With increase in number of layers of fabric and ply yarns, EMSE of fabric was increased.
Metallization is one of the finishing processes in textile treatment that can produce a unique fabric appearance. It appears to have great potential for application to garments for both functional and decorative effects. Chemical plating is an autocatalytic deposition method that can be used for precision work in conventional manufacture. This study has investigated the method for using chemical silver plating on cotton and polyester fabrics and the final properties of the metalized fabrics. The results showed that specific performance of the silver-plated fabric could be obtained if the optimum chemical plating condition was chosen. In addition, fabric design practice employing this chemical technique with the design method could achieve diverse effects.
Electromagnetic interference (EMI) received increasing amounts of press in the past few months, and will continue to do so in the future. Regulatory agencies in the United States have begun to come down hard on manufacturers of home computers and video games which link to television sets. These units, like the early CB radios, are adding additional electronic noise to the environmerit and interfering with sensitive electronics. Other forms of EMI are generated from natural sources, such as precipitation static, lightning storms, and solar flares. These natural sources, coupled with the largest source of EMI, legally operating transmitters which happen to operate in the range in which unintended receivers are susceptible, combine to form the “polution problem of the 80s”.
This paper describes the bundle strengths of PET filaments from a statistical point of view. A bundle is an arrangement of a number of filaments. We applied the weakest-link theory and probabilistic load-sharing rules to estimate the bundle strength from the breaking strength data of PET filaments. We analyzed the breaking behavior of 12 filament bundles according to their length and number of filaments and compared the breaking behavior of a prepared specimen yarn with that of a commercial PET filament yarn. The breaking strength of the PET filaments, which we tested using a MANTIS® tester, was compared with that of the actual yarn. We compared the actual tested values obtained by INSTRON® with the expected values, which we calculated from the MANTIS® data by using Peirce's theory and Knox's hazard function. The key effects that determine the actual random breakage behavior of a bundle include not only the load-sharing rules in the constituent filaments but also the slippage and friction between adjacent filaments, the appearance of which we distinguished especially in the bundle consisting of a large number of filaments and in small-denier filaments. The PET filaments were better approximated when using the Peirce's weakest-link theory than they were by Knox's hazard function. In a series-parallel model, we found that the number of parallel filaments and their load-sharing behavior had larger effects on the bundle strength than did the weakest-link effects of continuous elements.