Usage of Smart Polymers in the Textile Applications

Umer Mehmood
Department of Polymer and Process Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology,
Lahore, Pakistan
umermehmood@uet.edu.pk

In past few decades, revolutionary advancements in clothing and textile industry have occurred

in an unprecedented rate. Smart materials and structures brought tremendous advances in the

field of smart textile. They are divided into passive smart, active smart and very active materials

and are the materials that sense and react to stimuli and surrounding environment sources like

from, electrical, magnetic and thermal source etc. The current demand in the textile industry is of

the materials with high functionality and high material smartness. For high performance of

garments, shape memory polymers are used in film, foam and fibre form. One aspect of smart

clothing is that the clothing should be compatible with the skin temperature (30.4 - 36.4℃) and

any sort of environment either hot or cold. Since last 30 years new research is done to

manufacture and get suitable and desired properties for thermo-regulated and heat storage

clothing. This includes various Phase Change Materials also known as latent heat storage

materials. Ultraviolet, near IR, far IR rays absorbing clothing have been manufactured that

provides heating or cooling effects. Smart Nano-textile is also developed having some special

features like self-cleaning and it also has the ability to sense and to actuate. Different conductive

polymers, composites of CNTs and polymers are coated on fiber in textile field to improve the

mechanical and thermal properties and methodologies used for the coating purpose in which

most prominent are continuous wet spin coating, continuous knife over role coater, vapor and

spray methods of polymerization. Functional properties of smart polymers play an important role

in textile applications which includes volume expansion or contraction, moisture permeability,

refractive index. These properties are very significantly prominent above and below glass
transition temperature/melting temperature (Tg/Tm) because of difference in kinetic properties of

molecular chains and chains behavior. Several methods are or characterization techniques were

used to test the coating adhesion and resistivity and other functionalities. This new class of

textile which is coated with conductive polymer brought tremendous changes in the field of

ordinary clothing and textile. The objective is to develop textile that can recognize external

stimuli, process the information obtained from those stimuli and finally responding in a specific

time and manner, which is the core property of a smart material. Inherently conductive polymers

(ICPs) show these specific properties and are so considered smart materials. Most commonly

used ICPs in their undoped state are either insulator or semiconductor and upon doping their

electrical conductivity increases. These include Polyacethylene, Polypyrole (PPy), Polyaniline

(PAni), and Polythiophene (PTh). Various techniques are used for coating the conductive

material on textile substrate e.g. Vapor Deposition Polymerization, Direct Coating, Transfer

Coating, Screen Printing, and Knife-Over-Roll.

Smart textiles have wide applications in different fields of life; they are used in healthcare,

sports, life jackets, and entertainment and military applications.

Smart shape memory (SMP) fibers are compatible with body fluids, dual shape memory, high

recovery in shape, high fixity and material have ability to deform instantly temporary shape are

used in smart fibers. They mostly used to fill small or difficult wound where access is limited.

The other potential applications are cardiac valve repair, heart stunt, bones holding screws due to

their temperature adaptive change features. SMPs coated surgical protective garments are used

due to their thermo-physiological properties and comfort, duvet products.

 Figure 1: Smart vent structure in smart fabrics [1]

Layers of SMPs are incorporated in multilayer garments, used as protective coatings and high

quality leisure garments. Wide range temperature variation property with adaptable features

makes SMPs most promising garments. United States Army Soldiers Systems Center synthesis

wet or dry suits for their marine force to keep them warm in marine environment and provide

thermal insulations. SMPs are light weighted so they mostly used for such purpose. Other

applications are head caps, shirt neck bands, fishing yarns [2].

Figure 2: Stimuli responsive polymer woven fabrics with time recovery (a) 0 sec (b) 30 sec (c)
60 sec [1]

Damping SMPs fabrics have good impact / damping strength at glass transition temperature

(switching temperature). Secures (block co-polymer polyethylene terephthalate and poly

caprolactone) SMPs fibers are used in seat belts and other safety fabrics. They absorb the impact

force or kinetic force by utilizing the damping properties and expand as cushions for safety of

passenger [3]. Polymeric hydrogels such as N-isopropylacrylamide used as deodorant fabrics

combine on the textile surface. They are capable to release the deodorant agents at specific

temperature. The hydrogels are mostly used for this purpose combine on textile with functional

groups. These fabrics are not widely used because of soft handling and high stability issue [3].

Photochromic fabrics have been widely used in textile as color change material. They absorb the

light change color depend on the wavelength of absorb light. Many organic photochromic

materials discovered mostly azeobenzenes, viologens and spiropyrans mostly used in industry.

These SMPs materials are widely used in Jacquard fabrics, embroideries and printed garments

for sake of decoration and soft display [4]. SMPs fabrics are used as smart surfaces with

reversible switching between hydrophobicity and hydrophilicity and wettability. These materials

are used in industrial applications for self-cleaning surfaces and tuneable optical fibers. The

double structure helps the components behave in both cases when the temperature is above

Lower Critical Solution Temperature (LCST) or below LCST behavior. Shape memory polymer

foam has been widely used in aerospace industry, weight reducing agent, as foam in pillows [3].

The pillow filled with SMPs foams remember the neck and shoulder shape of user body and

change their shape at body temperature to provide a body comfort. SMPs foams used in shoe

insoles which effectively enhance the shoe fitting.

Figure 3: Shape memory foams applications [2]

In recent decades, smart polymers and smart polymer coatings are most researched topics

because of their high potential in soft robotics, smart surfaces, strain sensors, wearable displays,

bio-motion detectors and coatings which can also be coated on steel pipes to make them

corrosion free. In future, smart textiles will be used in the transportation and other industries.

Now the growth of this sector is slow because of the high cost of these materials, but in near

future the use of smart textiles will be increasing due to the discovery of effective and cheap way

of manufacturing these materials. In transport section they will be playing role in controlling the

heating of seats, smart functioning of seat belts and in steering wheel hold [5]. The major

problems of conductive textiles are their manufacturing on large scale. Their processing is very

costly that is why they are not used in daily lives. It is very difficult to maintain the inherent

textile properties (softness, mechanical) while using textiles as wearable electronics. There is

another problem of adhesion of conductive polymer on the textile surface [6].

References

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