Medical textiles have evolved from passive gauze and sutures into intelligent, biointegrated platforms capable of sensing, responding, and regenerating. However, existing reviews typically focus on single application areas (e.g. drug delivery or wound dressings), leaving a gap in integrated frameworks that connect materials design, fabrication, sensing, and closed-loop therapeutic action. This review provides a comprehensive, critical analysis across the entire translational pipeline, from stimuli-responsive polymers and conductive nanomaterials to electrospun scaffolds, wearable e-textiles, and theragnostic wound platforms. Key innovations covered include: (i) pH-, enzyme-, and thermo-responsive textile drug delivery with quantitative release kinetics; (ii) biomimetic scaffolds (lotus, spider silk, and gecko) replicating native ECM; (iii) e-textiles integrating physical, bio-potential, and biochemical sensors; and (iv) closed-loop theragnostic dressings that autonomously detect infection and trigger drug release. Unlike prior reviews, we systematically address regulatory pathways (FDA and MDR), sustainability (lifecycle analysis), and clinical translation barriers (power autonomy, washability, scalability, and procurement/reimbursement pathways). We conclude that while laboratory prototypes demonstrate extraordinary capabilities, clinical adoption requires standardized testing, scalable manufacturing, and large-scale validation. This review offers materials scientists, bioengineers, and clinicians a roadmap for developing next-generation intelligent textile platforms for predictive, personalized, and regenerative medicine.
Geotextiles are used for various traditional civil engineering applications, including reinforcement, filtration, separation, drainage, and sealing. With advancements in sensor technology, advanced geotextiles are developed using fibre optic sensors, thereby acting as smart materials that respond to changes in external conditions. Fibre optic-based sensors can monitor changes in temperature, pore pressure, humidity, and physical and chemical changes on the geotechnical structure, and repairs can be done earlier, which results in cost savings as well as saving lives. Intelligent geotextiles can be utilized simultaneously as sensors and reinforcement applications but the advantages of these sensors have to be set against the fact that they are expensive, and are not always reliable in that results can be influenced by moisture or electromagnetic interference. Natural fibre-based geotextiles are environmentally-friendly materials, but their performance can be further improved by various chemical modifications. One of the issues with such chemical treatments is their adverse environmental impact. This issue of Textile Progress discusses high-performance geotextiles, intelligent geotextiles, and natural fibre-based geotextiles and their modifications. Some of the important functional properties of geotextiles are discussed along with their applications in soil conservation, reinforcement, filtration, separation, and drainage. The environmental impacts of geotextiles and of micro- and nano-plastics from the geotextiles are also discussed.
The global increase in bio-waste generation due to rapid population growth, industrialization, and urbanization presents both environmental challenges and opportunities. Valorising bio-waste into advanced technical textiles offers a sustainable solution by reducing environmental burden while addressing the demand for high-performance materials. This issue of Textile Progress explores the prospects for various bio-waste sources including agricultural residues, food industry by-products, livestock waste, and marine biomass to be transformed into functional fibres, biopolymers, nanomaterials and coatings. Such bio-waste-derived materials have the potential to exhibit desirable characteristics such as biodegradability, thermal insulation, antimicrobial activity, and mechanical strength, making them suitable for diverse textile applications. Innovative fibre extraction methods and valorisation techniques are highlighted, including mechanical, chemical, and enzymatic treatments, and nanomaterial synthesis. The environmental and economic impacts of bio-waste-management strategies are also examined, emphasizing the potential of circular economy practices. Despite recent advances, challenges such as scalability, material consistency, and processing limitations remain. This issue of Textile Progress aims to provide a comprehensive overview of bio-waste applications in technical textiles, supporting the development of sustainable materials that minimize dependence on petroleum-based products and contribute to eco-friendly industrial practices.
Smart wearable systems are characterised by their ability to automatically detect the activity and behavioural status of the users, as well as the situation around them, and to use this information to adjust the system's configuration and functionality, whilst e-textiles are an emerging technology and have attracted attention because of their various applications in the military/defence field, sports, healthcare, fashion, and wearable technology. This issue of Textile Progress offers an extensive examination of the current landscape of e-textiles, focusing on their types, conductive materials, fabrication methods, applications, and the challenges and futures facing e-textiles. Regarding fabrication methods, this review shows that an e-textile can be developed using conductive components and conductive materials via fibre-spinning (wet, melt, and electro spinning) incorporated by weaving, knitting, printing, coating or embroidering, and by conductive adhesives. It also acknowledges the main challenges that need to be addressed in fabrication so as to utilise the full potential of e-textiles including washability, seamless fabrication, weight and flexibility, cost, and being powered in such a way as to be self-driven. Possible futures of smart e-textiles are discussed and gaps in the research are identified.
This review explores the evolution and challenges of firefighter hoods, emphasizing protection and comfort. Firefighter hoods are critical components of personal protective equipment (PPE), shielding against thermal hazards and airborne particulates. Traditional hoods prioritized thermal insulation but lacked effective particulate filtration, increasing firefighters' exposure to hazardous substances and carcinogens in smoke. Recent advancements, spurred by updates in National Fire Protection Association standards in the US, introduced particulate-blocking hoods that enhance both filtration and thermal protection. However, challenges remain in balancing protection with comfort, as new designs often cause heat stress, mobility limitations, and poor ergonomic fit. Furthermore, real-world testing is crucial to address gaps in evaluating hoods' interaction with other PPE, such as helmets and the self-contained breathing apparatus. This issue of Textile Progress emphasizes the need for comprehensive performance assessments that integrate laboratory-based and real-life testing to optimize hood design and indicates that future research should target ergonomic improvements, enhanced particulate filtration, and contamination risks during donning and doffing. It provides insights for PPE manufacturers, researchers, and fire safety policymakers, to guide the development of hoods that meet safety standards while improving firefighter comfort and operational performance. Such advancements are vital for reducing long-term health risks, including cancer, caused by smoke particulate exposure.
In recent decades, composites have been widely employed in various sectors to reduce the weight of structural materials whilst enhancing their mechanical qualities. This issue of Textile Progress provides a detailed overview of composite material types, failure mechanisms, and damage-detection techniques applicable to composite structures. Due to their heterogeneity, composite materials are susceptible to several complicated forms of damage. Thus, for early damage identification of composites, structural health monitoring (SHM) may assist in efficient maintenance-scheduling, reducing wasteful inspections, and avoiding catastrophic occurrences and tragic outcomes. SHM is more sophisticated than most non-destructive testing approaches in that it involves establishing systems capable of continually gathering, analyzing, and interpreting data from structures to evaluate their health and lifespan. Several SHM approaches for composite structural-damage diagnosis are available; however, none are adequate for all situations. The number of techniques accessible now is too large to discuss in a single study so methods that may be used as a foundation for further research are the main focus of the current review.
Auxetic textiles are intriguing materials with unusual capabilities. These materials exhibit a negative Poisson's ratio with extraordinary performance in toughness, resilience, shear resistance, and acoustic properties mainly due to their special structure and associated deformation mechanics. Auxetic materials can also have applications around energy absorption and can effectively be used for vibration damping and shock absorbency. The exceptional behaviour of auxetic textiles can be obtained by utilising specific fibrous materials and introducing auxetic geometry and structures differently during weaving, knitting, and nonwoven manufacturing. This issue of Textile Progress highlights the fundamental aspects of various auxetic structures and their properties in general and a detailed analysis of auxetic textile structures and composites, their manufacturing processes, modelling, characterisation, and applications. These materials can potentially revolutionise their applications in sports, automotive, construction industry, biomedical engineering, aerospace, marine, and defence personal protective equipment. Fundamental understanding of auxetic geometry, followed by developing and analysing these geometries by analytical and computational modelling, translating the geometry into appropriate textile structures for actual fabric production, characterisation of auxetic fabrics and their composites, and finally, some innovative applications in technical textiles are some of the fascinating issues addressed in this review.
Traditional steel-based reinforcements face corrosion issues that compromise the durability of concrete structures. Large concrete covers are recommended to mitigate corrosion of steel reinforcements, resulting in thicker, heavier structures with increased material consumption and costs, making them less sustainable. Textile reinforced concrete (TRC), with its corrosion resistance, high tensile strength, drapeability, formability, and lightweight nature, offers a sustainable alternative. It necessitates less concrete cover, thereby reducing costs and material consumption, making it suitable for lightweight and durable structural components. Various combinations of textile structures achieved through selective adjustments to fibre, yarn, and fabric geometry present significant potential for developing customized TRC elements. This issue of Textile Progress delves into the environmental impact of construction materials, TRC composition and manufacturing, mechanical testing techniques, and the influence of textile (yarn, braided fabric, woven fabric, knitted fabric, 3-D spacer fabric, nonwoven fabric) structural parameters on TRC behaviour. Additionally, the effects of textile coatings, filler incorporation, and discrete fibre integration on TRC properties are also explored. Overall, textile reinforcement in concrete enhances properties such as tensile strength, ductility, strain hardening behaviour, flexural strength, impact resistance, toughness, multiple cracking behaviour, and reduced crack width and spacing, whilst also bolstering resistance to environmental factors.
Honeycomb is regarded as a valuable structural material because of its high strength, shear stiffness, high impact strength, low weight, high crushing stress, and nearly constant force to crush. It is a cellular solid, well-known as a core in creating sandwich structures for use in structural composites. Honeycombs are often utilized in the aircraft sector as the core of sandwich panels and in the automotive industry as effective impact attenuators because of their superior mechanical performance. The hollow spaces in the honeycomb structure not only reduce weight but also ensure the required strength, provided they are designed correctly. In lightweight application areas, because they offer structural integrity, 3-D woven honeycomb composites have a bright future and possess the potential to replace aluminum and other metal alloys. This issue of Textile Progress focuses on the manufacturing of 3-D woven honeycomb fabrics, their mechanical characterization, application areas, different ways of weaving honeycomb cells, and some innovations related to honeycomb-like auxetic and 3-D printed honeycomb structures.
Cosmeto-textiles are textiles that aim to enrich and address aspects of modern-day life, such as slimming by cellulite reduction, skin moisture management, energising the human body, protection from ultraviolet radiation, providing pleasant fragrance or providing anti-ageing-appearance properties. To achieve the intended outcomes, various compounds of animal, mineral, and plant origin are utilised in cosmeto-textiles and incorporated into the textile product. Cosmetic functionality can be incorporated into textiles by modifying the fibre by introducing a functional moiety into the fibre's polymer chain, or by doping the polymer with additives before fibre extrusion, by functionalising the yarns, or by coating the fabrics or garments for example by grafting or lamination. This is commonly undertaken by the use of microencapsulation or using cyclodextrin as a cage material. The cosmeto-textiles market is expanding globally. Whilst characterisation of cosmeto-textiles has been challenging, the Europeans have taken the lead in classifying and standardising the testing of cosmetic effects of cosmeto-textiles in the same manner that cosmetic items are tested. Cosmeto-textiles may be characterised by the chemical attributes they have or by the function they undertake. Whilst the field of cosmeto-textiles remains at an embryological stage, the joint efforts of cosmetic scientists, textile engineers, biochemists, dermatologists, and life scientists are allowing for standardisation of testing and an expansion in products that can be taken through to market. This issue of Textile Progress aims to summarise the field as it currently stands.
For thousands of years, wool has been a valuable fibre for humans. Today, wool remains an essential fibre in the textile industry and is suitable for a wide range of applications because of its unique properties and versatility. In addition, wool is renewable and biodegradable making it a sustainable choice for technical textiles. However, wool is susceptible to moth damage. This is caused by the moth larvae that feed on the keratin protein present in wool fibres. Therefore, mothproofing methods are necessary to protect wool products. This review aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of wool and its different applications. Wool’s chemical composition and structure are discussed in addition to its unique properties and world production. This is followed by a section that highlights the different applications of wool ranging from apparel to technical textiles as well as the numerous insect-proofing treatments of wool. A growing interest in wool powder applications has led researchers to explore various methods for its preparation. In this context, the review reports on developments in novel and emergent mechanical methods of preparing wool powder and its potential applications.
Cosmeto-textiles are textiles that aim to enrich and address aspects of modern-day life, such as slimming by cellulite reduction, skin moisture management, energising the human body, protection from ultraviolet radiation, providing pleasant fragrance or providing anti-ageing-appearance properties. To achieve the intended outcomes, various compounds of animal, mineral, and plant origin are utilised in cosmeto-textiles and incorporated into the textile product. Cosmetic functionality can be incorporated into textiles by modifying the fibre by introducing a functional moiety into the fibre’s polymer chain, or by doping the polymer with additives before fibre extrusion, by functionalising the yarns, or by coating the fabrics or garments for example by grafting or lamination. This is commonly undertaken by the use of microencapsulation or using cyclodextrin as a cage material. The cosmeto-textiles market is expanding globally. Whilst characterisation of cosmeto-textiles has been challenging, the Europeans have taken the lead in classifying and standardising the testing of cosmetic effects of cosmeto-textiles in the same manner that cosmetic items are tested. Cosmeto-textiles may be characterised by the chemical attributes they have or by the function they undertake. Whilst the field of cosmeto-textiles remains at an embryological stage, the joint efforts of cosmetic scientists, textile engineers, biochemists, dermatologists, and life scientists are allowing for standardisation of testing and an expansion in products that can be taken through to market. This issue of Textile Progress aims to summarise the field as it currently stands.Keywords: Cellulitecontrolled releaseessential oilsmicroencapsulationskin moisturisationslimming Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Smart textiles, also known as electronic textiles or e-textiles, are advanced materials that merge traditional textile structures with integrated electronic components and technologies. These textiles offer enhanced functionality and capabilities by incorporating sensors, actuators, power sources, processing units, and communication systems. They enable interaction with the environment and other devices, going beyond the capabilities of traditional textiles. This paper overviews smart textiles and their applications in various sectors such as sportswear, industry, automotive, entertainment, military, public sector, healthcare, and safety domains. It also highlights recent advancements in the field. The focus is wearable fabric-based personal systems, including fitness monitoring, safety, security, and promoting a healthy lifestyle. Integrating smart textiles into garments and accessories can revolutionise industries and improve the quality of life by offering personalised and innovative solutions.
Leather, a popular material in a wide array of industries, is traditionally sourced from animal hides. The scale of production has increased over time, leading to ever-greater concerns about the environmental, ethical and health impacts of leather manufacture. The substantial resources required, plus the pollution and waste generated, pose serious doubts over the sustainability of existing production systems and their ability to meet the increasing demand for leather-like materials. To address these issues, alternatives to leather have been developed. Up to now though, these materials have been unable to perform as well as genuine leather, either mechanically, aesthetically or texturally. Some of the polymer-based alternatives may even be more harmful to the environment than leather itself. The need for a more-suitable leather substitute has coincided with the emergence of cellular agriculture technologies. In the future, it is hoped that leather-like materials may be engineered from collagen created by cellular agriculture, instead of relying upon animal slaughter. Such a material could offer great design, sustainability, environmental and ethical benefits over real leather. Whilst there is significant potential, more investment in research and development is needed before the technology can be considered sufficiently well developed. So far, tissue-engineering techniques applied from clinical fields have proven too costly and inefficient for scaling up, but work has already commenced to identify sources of collagen and cell growth media that are less animal-dependent and not so expensive. Even so, more-efficient methods of controlling the collagen network structure still need to be created. The new round of research is therefore expected to focus upon increasing cell-culture efficiency using, for example, specialised bioreactors.
Abstract Printed electronics (PE) is one of the most dynamic technologies in the world. It proposes low-cost electronic network production in flexible substrates by numerous printing techniques, (screen printing, gravure, offset, flexographic, and inkjet printing), used in various industries. In PE, ink pigments are replaced by metallic particles or precursors that transmit electrical conductivity to the printed patterns such as carbon, polymers and conductive pigments. Conductive inks play an important role in printed electronics, and despite the number of conductive ink types available on the market, there are still issues to be addressed. Some of these restrictions include the use of toxic chemical reagents and solvents and complicated manufacturing protocols, which often make the industrialization of conductive inks an even more distant goal. In particular, conductive inks based on silver nanoparticles, Graphene and PEDOT:PSS are widely studied thanks to their high electrical conductivity. On the other hand, there is still work to be done to show the interest of inks based on phthalocyanine pigments, in particular copper phthalocyanine. Nevertheless, problems related to stability, dispersion and annealing temperature often limit the application of these four types of fillers. In this review, we present general information on available conductive fillers used for the formulation of conductive inks, focusing on metallic particles, carbon fillers, pigments and polymers. The influence and technical requirements of the regularly used printing techniques, as well as the post-processing treatments to achieve the targeted performance in the obtained inks have been discussed. In addition, the surface characteristics of the various types of extensible and flexible substrates used in portable electronics are described. Moreover, some types of printed flexible electronic components as well as notable applications of electronic textiles in various sectors are exhibited. Next, the major challenges for the manufacturing of printed flexible electronics and recommendations for future research are discussed in this review
This issue of Textile Progress provides a critical literature review and reflection relating to academic research in the field of fashion buying and merchandising, with a specific focus on the fashion product development process. As the topic has not been reviewed before in Textile Progress, the paper follows the process of fashion product development, a key task that forms one of the many responsibilities of fashion buyers and merchandisers and explores the literature from its origins to the present day, capturing the significant elements that have changed and shaped the process over time. Establishing the challenges and changes in contemporary fashion retailing enables the development of an understanding of how and why these fundamental factors impact not only the process of getting products from idea to concept, but also the roles and responsibilities of the buyers and merchandisers; added to this, the review provides a critical overview of the Buying Cycle. The review further explores the external and internal components and participants influencing the fashion product development process, thereby updating what can be found in the existing product development literature to reflect the current state-of-play in the industry. By illustrating and reviewing the process models of new product development and fashion product development from their original and early forms to the present day, the review establishes the links, connections, and differences across both the more-general and specific areas of research. Subsequently, there is a review of the roles and responsibilities of the fashion buyer and merchandiser, alongside a discussion of how the developments, advancements and transformation of the industry have changed the nature of the involvement of these crucial personnel in the fashion product development process over time. This aspect of the review provides a base upon which to analyse the contemporary fashion-retail buying cycle, establishing its early connection to organisational decision-making process models and the implications and challenges that product assortment planning, development, and retailing pose on the cycle. The last two chapters of this review are dedicated to two crucial areas of the contemporary fashion industry, namely sustainability and technology and address how they have become key drivers in determining the roles of the fashion buyer and merchandiser and how the fashion product development process is now addressed.
Current advances in flexible, textile wearable device manufacturing are being made through a new generation of materials and nanotechnology. These recent advances make integrating functional sensors into textiles easier and allow for widespread application, including healthcare. Through improving the materials and integration techniques used, wearable sensors can be used to create personalised healthcare products that can monitor vital physical and biological signals. One material that is leading the way for future healthcare systems is graphene. Graphene has superior electrical and thermal conductivity, high chemical stability, and extreme mechanical properties. It also offers a variety of hybrid types that are useful when designing cost-effective and scalable electronic devices for textile applications. This review will outline how graphene and textile-based materials are being used to manufacture wearable health-monitoring devices as well as the challenges and opportunities of graphene and textile-based materials.
Printed electronics (PE) is one of the most dynamic technologies in the world. It proposes low-cost electronic network production in flexible substrates by numerous printing techniques, (screen printing, gravure, offset, flexographic, and inkjet printing), used in various industries. In PE, ink pigments are replaced by metallic particles or precursors that transmit electrical conductivity to the printed patterns such as carbon, polymers and conductive pigments. Conductive inks play an important role in printed electronics, and despite the number of conductive ink types available on the market, there are still issues to be addressed. Some of these restrictions include the use of toxic chemical reagents and solvents and complicated manufacturing protocols, which often make the industrialization of conductive inks an even more distant goal. In particular, conductive inks based on silver nanoparticles, Graphene and PEDOT:PSS are widely studied thanks to their high electrical conductivity. On the other hand, there is still work to be done to show the interest of inks based on phthalocyanine pigments, in particular copper phthalocyanine. Nevertheless, problems related to stability, dispersion and annealing temperature often limit the application of these four types of fillers. In this review, we present general information on available conductive fillers used for the formulation of conductive inks, focusing on metallic particles, carbon fillers, pigments and polymers. The influence and technical requirements of the regularly used printing techniques, as well as the post-processing treatments to achieve the targeted performance in the obtained inks have been discussed. In addition, the surface characteristics of the various types of extensible and flexible substrates used in portable electronics are described. Moreover, some types of printed flexible electronic components as well as notable applications of electronic textiles in various sectors are exhibited. Next, the major challenges for the manufacturing of printed flexible electronics and recommendations for future research are discussed in this review
Ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) has the potential to make a significant contribution to the efforts currently being made to help to protect the environment by reducing carbon emissions through the substitution of heavy conventional materials with lightweight polymeric materials. Used on its own, UHMWPE also offers complete recyclability with thermoplastic matrices. UHMWPE fibre-based composites (both thermoplastic and thermoset) offer a wide range of applications in various fields such as military protective suits, automotive, aerospace, electronics hardware, tribological application, and biomaterial implants, and this issue of Textile Progress explores the behaviour of UHMWPE with different matrix systems for various purposes. UHMWPE is widely used in the development of ballistic protective armours. Apart from applications where impact resistance is a key requirement, UHMWPE-based composites are currently being employed in the fields such as biomedical implants, anti-friction systems, dielectric and acoustic applications, and other structural fields; the UHMWPE should be extractable from the thermoplastic types and be able to be recycled. The various manufacturing techniques employed in the preparation of UHMWPE and its composites are discussed as are improvements aimed at eradicating existing processing issues associated with UHMWPE.
Awareness of the harmful effects of chemical substances is gradually increasing and scientific investigations have time and again revealed the negative influences of the chemicals conventionally used. This has led to restricting the use of certain chemicals and dyes in textile wet treatments. Globally there has been an acceptance of this by branding agencies and retailers. Government organisations have also supported these restrictions, and curtailment in such chemical usage has now become the norm throughout the textile supply chain. This issue of Textile Progress reviews the chronological evolution of the restrictions leading to the concepts of RSL (Restricted Substances List) and MRSL (Manufacturing Restricted Substances List) now widely followed. The listing of harmful chemicals under Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC) is also discussed. The major chemicals or groups of chemicals facing restriction are dealt with in detail, covering their usage, hazards, sources, chemistry and possible substitutes (if any). Examples such as the alkyl phenols and alkyl phenol ethoxylates used for decades as detergents and wetting agents in preparatory processes, dyeing and printing were found to be potential hormone disruptors and very toxic to aquatic life, and substitutes have been put in place. Substances such as azo-amines, chlorophenols, formaldehyde, brominated flame retardants, heavy metals and fluorochemicals also have their share of adverse effects on human health and environment and need to be avoided. Studies have shown the presence of phthalates in routinely-used chemicals which can be traced back to the manufacturing process itself and other hazardous chemicals such as bisphenols, chloroparaffins, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, quinoline, VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds), biocides and UV absorbers have also figured in discussions. Comprehensive testing for the presence of the various restricted substances is essential but anomalies can arise.
