Nanotechnology for modern textiles: highlights on smart applications
Tharwat I. Shaheen
Abstract
Nowadays, there is a growing awareness of most customers upgrading their traditional clothes, which should be competent to improve their lives. Nanomaterials create an opportunity to manufacture multifunctional textiles with sustainable durability that can be integrated into smart textiles. Smart/interactive textiles are fabrics that can perceive and commit responses to external stimuli to align themselves with changes in the surrounding environment. The recent use of nanomaterials has given rise to the development of new functional fabrics, including self-cleaning and self-healing ability, which will be needed to sustain the textile and apparel industry. Nanoparticles also introduced a potential application for making adjunctive garments that can respond to external stimuli. This would be accomplished by innovating either techniques or devices for building up novel finishing materials, e.g. conducting composites, carbon nanotubes, and nano-coatings. The current review addresses the broad highlights of modern textile in the realm of smart application of nanotechnology to improve our daily life effectively.