12 Sensors and actuators for textiles: from materials to applications
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Akanksha Pragya
Abstract
The integration of electrical functionalities into textiles offers exponentially expanding opportunities for new smart and connected products with capabilities that cut across traditional product boundaries. The hierarchical structure of textiles, from fibres and yarn to fabrics, and the myriad interlacement patterns attainable through weaving, knitting, and non-woven technologies provide numerous possibilities for ubiquitous integration of electrical devices such as sensors and actuators. While electronic textiles (e-textiles) offer new disruptive opportunities in applications such as healthcare, it also poses certain challenges that arise from the need to preserve the inherent desirable qualities of textiles such as comfort, flexibility, conformability, strength, and breathability. Since textiles take up the intimate space around the human body, sensors deployed therein can sense numerous useful parameters like motion, stress, strain, moisture, chemicals, and bio-signals corresponding to the wearer’s body. To implement different sensing modalities (e.g., capacitive and resistive) into textiles, various techniques such as geometric microengineering (e.g., multimaterial layers) and surface functionalization (e.g., in situ polymerization) can be used. While sensors provide useful physiological and environmental information, fibreand yarn-based actuators offer the capabilities to create responsive textiles that can react to environmental or applied stimuli such as moisture, heat, and electricity. Sensors and actuators complement each other, and a truly “smart” textile system of the future should include these two functionalities together to trigger a response within the textiles using integrated sensors, thereby creating a closed-loop holistic system. This chapter presents the research advances on sensors and actuators for e-textiles with their significance in a functional system. The discussion extends into relevant measurement principles, materials, and methods potentially compatible with textile products and processes. Finally, a reflection on the current challenges and possible future directions in sensors and actuators for e-textiles is made.
Abstract
The integration of electrical functionalities into textiles offers exponentially expanding opportunities for new smart and connected products with capabilities that cut across traditional product boundaries. The hierarchical structure of textiles, from fibres and yarn to fabrics, and the myriad interlacement patterns attainable through weaving, knitting, and non-woven technologies provide numerous possibilities for ubiquitous integration of electrical devices such as sensors and actuators. While electronic textiles (e-textiles) offer new disruptive opportunities in applications such as healthcare, it also poses certain challenges that arise from the need to preserve the inherent desirable qualities of textiles such as comfort, flexibility, conformability, strength, and breathability. Since textiles take up the intimate space around the human body, sensors deployed therein can sense numerous useful parameters like motion, stress, strain, moisture, chemicals, and bio-signals corresponding to the wearer’s body. To implement different sensing modalities (e.g., capacitive and resistive) into textiles, various techniques such as geometric microengineering (e.g., multimaterial layers) and surface functionalization (e.g., in situ polymerization) can be used. While sensors provide useful physiological and environmental information, fibreand yarn-based actuators offer the capabilities to create responsive textiles that can react to environmental or applied stimuli such as moisture, heat, and electricity. Sensors and actuators complement each other, and a truly “smart” textile system of the future should include these two functionalities together to trigger a response within the textiles using integrated sensors, thereby creating a closed-loop holistic system. This chapter presents the research advances on sensors and actuators for e-textiles with their significance in a functional system. The discussion extends into relevant measurement principles, materials, and methods potentially compatible with textile products and processes. Finally, a reflection on the current challenges and possible future directions in sensors and actuators for e-textiles is made.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Preface V
- Contents IX
- List of authors XI
- 1 Introduction to functional, smart, and intelligent textiles: perspectives and potential applications 1
- 2 Nanotechnology in textile finishing: an approach towards imparting manifold functionalities 63
- 3 Coating- and lamination-based smart textiles: techniques, features, and challenges 97
- 4 Speciality coatings and laminations on textiles 151
- 5 Polymer-based nanocomposites for smart and functional textiles 183
- 6 Emerging trends in electroconductive textiles 221
- 7 Graphene-based functional textile materials 267
- 8 Smart and functional textiles for personal thermal comfort 329
- 9 Stimuli-responsive smart and functional textiles 355
- 10 Protective smart and functional textiles 375
- 11 Functional and smart textiles for military and defence applications 397
- 12 Sensors and actuators for textiles: from materials to applications 469
- 13 Medical textiles: materials, applications, features, and recent advancements 533
- 14 Design and development of chitosan-based textiles for biomedical applications 591
- 15 Smart textiles for energy harvesting applications 607
- 16 Fibrous materials for automotive applications 635
- 17 Smart/functional textiles and fashion products enabled by 3D and 4D printing 683
- 18 Functional and smart textiles in care, treatment, and diagnosis of COVID-19 721
- Index 751
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Preface V
- Contents IX
- List of authors XI
- 1 Introduction to functional, smart, and intelligent textiles: perspectives and potential applications 1
- 2 Nanotechnology in textile finishing: an approach towards imparting manifold functionalities 63
- 3 Coating- and lamination-based smart textiles: techniques, features, and challenges 97
- 4 Speciality coatings and laminations on textiles 151
- 5 Polymer-based nanocomposites for smart and functional textiles 183
- 6 Emerging trends in electroconductive textiles 221
- 7 Graphene-based functional textile materials 267
- 8 Smart and functional textiles for personal thermal comfort 329
- 9 Stimuli-responsive smart and functional textiles 355
- 10 Protective smart and functional textiles 375
- 11 Functional and smart textiles for military and defence applications 397
- 12 Sensors and actuators for textiles: from materials to applications 469
- 13 Medical textiles: materials, applications, features, and recent advancements 533
- 14 Design and development of chitosan-based textiles for biomedical applications 591
- 15 Smart textiles for energy harvesting applications 607
- 16 Fibrous materials for automotive applications 635
- 17 Smart/functional textiles and fashion products enabled by 3D and 4D printing 683
- 18 Functional and smart textiles in care, treatment, and diagnosis of COVID-19 721
- Index 751
