Smart textiles are fabrics able to sense external conditions or stimuli, to respond and adapt behaviour to them in an intelligent way and present a challenge in several fields today such as health, sport, automotive and aerospace. Electrically conductive textiles include conductive fibres, yarns, fabrics, and final products made from them. Often they are prerequisite to functioning smart textiles, and their quality determines durability, launderability, reusability and fibrous performances of smart textiles. Important part in smart textiles development has conductive polymers which are defined as organic polymers able to conduct electricity. They combine some of the mechanical features of plastics with the electrical properties typical for metals. The most attractive in a group of these polymers are polyaniline (PANI), polypyrrole (PPy) and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) as one of the polythiophene (PTh) derivatives. Commercially available smart textile products where conductive polymers have crucial role for their development are medical textiles, protective clothing, touch screen displays, flexible fabric keyboards, and sensors for various areas. This paper is focused on conductive polymers description, mechanism of their conductivity, and various approaches to produce electrically conductive textiles for smart textiles needs. Commercial products of conductive polymers-based smart textiles are presented as well as the objective of a number of lab-scale items.

Many metallic structural and non-structural parts used in the transportation industry can be replaced by textile-reinforced composites. Composites made from a polymeric matrix and fibrous reinforcement have been increasingly studied during the last decade. On the other hand, the fast development of smart textile structures seems to be a very promising solution for in situ structural health monitoring of composite parts. In order to optimize composites’ quality and their lifetime all the production steps have to be monitored in real time. Textile sensors embedded in the composite reinforcement and having the same mechanical properties as the yarns used to make the reinforcement exhibit actuating and sensing capabilities. This paper presents a new generation of textile fibrous sensors based on the conductive polymer complex poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly(styrenesulfonate) developed by an original roll to roll coating method. Conductive coating for yarn treatment was defined according to the preliminary study of percolation threshold of this polymer complex. The percolation threshold determination was based on conductive dry films’ electrical properties analysis, in order to develop highly sensitive sensors. A novel laboratory equipment was designed and produced for yarn coating to ensure effective and equally distributed coating of electroconductive polymer without distortion of textile properties. The electromechanical properties of the textile fibrous sensors confirmed their suitability for in situ structural damages detection of textile reinforced thermoplastic composites in real time.

The weight of textile components in automobiles is expected to rise to 35 kg by 2020, and the average lifetime of a vehicle is about 12 years. Car seats are the most important part of the interior decoration, and polyester is the most widely used material in car seat covering. Abrasion resistance tests are used to quantify the duration of car seat upholstery in normal usage, and this is one of the most important requirements. Several testing methods, standards, and car producer specifications have been developed to define the abrasion resistance of specified materials, and pre-tests have been taken to identify parameters for this research. The objective of this study was to compare three abrasion tests with different abrasive elements using car seat upholstery structures. Comparison among abrasion testers and abrasive papers shows statistically significant differences. The relationship between weight loss and abrasion cycles can be modelled by regression equations.

The use of textile science and innovative approaches in the development and manufacturing of multifunctional fabrics for sports bras has continuously grown in the last decades, contributing to female well-being and health. The fabrics used for sports bras must be lightweight and have good heat and moisture management properties. A sports bra must provide appropriate stabilization, as the most important and original functionality, while providing optimal thermal comfort. In this work, we examined basic fabric properties influencing the key functionalities, stabilization, and drying. Besides properties such as mass, thickness, water vapor permeability, air permeability, and relative porosity, thermal comfort (water uptake and drying) and mechanical properties (stabilization and support) were investigated. Multiple-linear regression statistical analysis was conducted to identify the most relevant variables and fabric characteristics for stabilization and drying. In addition, a “five-point” benchmarking and ranking system was established for performance assessment of the investigated knitted fabrics. With the proposed approach, we were able to identify the most suitable fabric from a set of benchmarking materials. This fabric exhibited a quick drying time of 16 minutes, along with high air permeability (312 mm/s), excellent moisture management, and very good dynamic elastic recovery (89%) and support. We successfully identified key fabric properties that define fabric drying and stabilization performance by applying models based on Multiple-linear regression. This provides the basis for the informed selection of fabrics for the systematic development of sports bras.

When developing fabrics for applications in which evaporative cooling and drying play an important role, e.g., sports or occupational applications, the drying performance of fabrics is commonly determined using fast and easy-to-perform benchmark methods. The measurement conditions in these methods, however, differ significantly from the drying conditions on the human body surface, where drying is obstructed on one side of the fabric through contact with the skin and at the same time enhanced due to contact with the heated surface (skin). The aims of this study were to understand and quantify the fabric drying process at the skin interface considering these real-use effects based on tests applying two-sided drying, one-sided drying, one-sided drying on a heated surface, and one-sided drying on a heated surface in the stretched state, and to relate these to existing standard methods. The findings showed that contact with a solid heated surface such as the skin and the stretched state of the fabric both make a significant contribution (p < 0.05) to the drying rate compared to two-sided drying in standard climatic conditions. The corresponding drying rates observed for a range of typical fabrics used in leisure and sports as a first layer next to the skin were found to be 1.6 (±0.2), 1.1 (±0.2), 7.9 (±2.1), and 10.6 (±0.8) g/m² min for two-sided drying, one-sided drying, one-sided drying on a heated surface, and one-sided drying on a heated surface in the stretched state, respectively. These findings are of great importance for human thermal modelling, including clothing models, where the drying process significantly contributes to the heat and mass transfer in the skin–clothing–environment system.