Nanocomposite sensors for smart textile composites

Textile composites are an emerging class of materials pulled by the emerging demand in wearable electronics. These composites use some aspect of textile technologies in their fabrication, ranging from fiber placement techniques such as weaving and knitting to various coating practices such as printing or dying. Contrary to most of structural composites that use fibers in various forms and types as reinforcement, smart textile composites mainly take advantage of exceptional properties of nanofillers, both carbonaceous and noncarbonaceous. These fillers can be used to create reinforcement network with exceptional properties even at very low filler concentrations. These fillers have not only been used to improve mechanical properties but also been incorporated for their exceptional electrical and thermal conductivities. These latter attributes have been successfully exploited for the development of smart composites capable of sensing changes in their environment.