Research progress of composite conductive fiber in wearable intelligent textiles

Abstract

Intelligent wearable field is a cross-research field with multiple disciplines and categories, and it has attracted the scholars’ attention from all domains in recent years. As the hub of intelligent wearable devices, the conductive fibers have a broad application prospect in this field because of their excellent mechanical properties and outstanding electrical and optical functional properties. In view of the research progress of conductive fibers which can be used in flexible smart wearable textiles, the conductive mechanism and preparation methods of conductive fibers including metal conductive fibers, conductive polymer fibers, carbon conductive fibers were systematically reviewed. Then the research progress and future application direction of composite conductive fibers prepared by different electrode materials in the past three years were described in details. Finally, the development prospect of this kind of flexible conductive fiber was summarized and prospected. It is expected to be helpful to the research and development of wearable intelligent fabric equipment and miniaturized flexible intelligent electronic products in the future.