Smart nanotextiles: an introduction

Smart textiles are structures capable of detecting, reacting, and adapting to a large number of stimuli such as electrical, magnetic, thermal, optical, acoustic, mechanical, and chemical. World consumption of technical textiles has been steadily increasing from $65 to $100 billion in 2010. World consumption of technical and smart textiles is 19.7 million tons. The ratios remain substantially the same in commercial value. But Asia shows the highest annual growth rate of 4.1%, above the world average of 3.3%. The United States and Europe have a growth rate of 2.8% in the textile industry. There are generally three generations of intelligent textiles. The first generation, of which many examples are already on the market, consists of systems whose active features are added during the final assembly step of the product. In the second generation, intelligent components are integrated during the production of the textile itself. As for third-generation smart textiles, they will carry the active elements at the heart of their fibers and yarns: these will be integrated in the extrusion or spinning stage. Researchers are working to develop this third generation that will probably not be on the market for a decade.