This review supports an overview of selected high-performance fibers and functional fiber materials. A review of several properties and applications is given. For fiber materials and fabrics, microscopic images taken by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) are presented. As well as this, electron dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) is performed on the fiber materials and an overview of EDS spectra is presented. The features of SEM images and EDS spectra are discussed, especially with the aim of supporting people who are working in the field of fiber analytics. To support a complete view of both analytic methods—SEM and EDS—challenges and typical mistakes for SEM measurements on textiles are also described. Altogether, this review supports a useful overview of interesting high technology fiber materials and their investigation using the analytical methods SEM and EDS. Using these, material properties and their composition are presented and discussed. The composition of industrial fiber materials is investigated and discussed, as well as fiber treatments for the realization of functional fiber properties. Furthermore, it aims to support a helpful tool for fiber and textile analytics and identification.

Phase‐change memory (PCM) belongs to the nonvolatile solid‐state memory techniques. Usually, a chalcogenide is sandwiched between two conductive electrodes and data are stored by setting each cell to a low‐resistance (crystalline) or a high‐resistance (amorphous) state. Switching between these states is relatively fast, which makes phase‐change random access memories (PCRAMs) highly interesting for nonvolatile memories. Multilevel cells, which can store more than 1 bit per cell, and multilayer high‐density memory arrays have also been reported as advantages of PCRAM. Writing currents and data retention, on the other hand, still show potential for optimization. This review gives an overview of the most recent developments in new material compositions and material‐related optimization of PCM in comparison with already produced PCM.

Polyvinyl butyral is used in safety glass interlayers, mainly in car windshields. Legislative regulations require a recycling of cars after their lifetime and therefore also their safety glass. This causes the availability of recycled polyvinyl butyrate (r-PVB) originated from safety glass interlayers. Due to deteriorated optical properties, such as the transparency, and unknown amounts of plasticizers, it is challenging to reuse the recycled material in new windshields. Therefore, it is of particular interest to find new fields of application for r-PVB, such as the usage as a textile coating. In this research, r-PVB was investigated as a material for yarn coating. Polyester and polyamide mono- and multifilament yarns were coated continuously with solely a polymer dispersion and with mixtures of crosslinking agent and polymer dispersion. Crosslinked r-PVB coatings showed enhanced properties toward abrasion and chemical resistance. Coatings without the crosslinking agent showed a diminished abrasion resistance and could be washed off with ethanol. Mechanical properties of the monofilaments were influenced by the r-PVB coating in general. However, varying concentrations of the crosslinking agent did not affect the mechanical properties.

Monitoring of humidity is a widespread application for process control, lifetime assessment of components and assemblies, environmental control systems, medical textiles, working clothes and personal safety systems. To allow spatially resolved mapping of this parameter over a larger textile surface, discrete sensor elements are presently placed separately onto the textile material. Hence, the actual integration level of sensors in textile materials and therefore the value creation is rather low. To achieve a higher integration level textile sensors are needed. To serve this need the development and characterization of different textile-based humidity sensors using spinning, printing and coating technologies is described in this paper. It was shown that the developed sensors were sensitive towards relative humidity in the range of 25 to 80 % rel. humidity.

Natural dyes offer a bio-based opportunity to support the attractive coloration of textile fabrics made from natural fibers like cotton, wool, hemp, and many other textile materials. They can be part of a strategy to realize fully bio-based textiles and clothing materials. In line with this statement, the following study investigates the use of wood extracts for dyeing cotton fabrics. Specifically, extract powders of logwood (Haematoxylon campechianum L.), brazilwood (Caesalpinia spp.), and quebracho wood (Schinopsis lorentzii) are used. The aim of the study is to evaluate which colorations can be obtained by the application of those wood extracts and what fastness properties are reached. For this, different modified process parameters and mordants are evaluated. The dyeing process is modified using different mordants based on iron and aluminum salts. These mordants are applied in pre-, meta-, or post-mordant procedures. The color and fastness properties of prepared textile samples are determined by spectroscopic measurements, color measurements, washing procedures, and a Xenotest for measuring the light fastness. Ultimately, it is shown that a broad range of colorations can be realized through different combinations of wood extracts and mordanting procedures. Notably, stronger color depths are reached with pre- and meta-mordanting compared to post-mordanting. Good wash fastness is obtained for some color shades. However, with post-mordanting, better wash fastness can be achieved. The light fastness of the realized samples is only moderate to low. In conclusion, it can be stated that dyes from wood extracts are excellent materials to dye natural fibers if they are combined with the right mordanting agent in pre- or meta-mordanting procedures. The present study is therefore a good proof-of-concept for the realization of fully bio-based colored textile materials.