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Sustainable electronic textiles towards scalable commercialization

Nature Materials volume 22, pages 1294–1303 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Textiles represent a fundamental material format that is extensively integrated into our everyday lives. The quest for more versatile and body-compatible wearable electronics has led to the rise of electronic textiles (e-textiles). By enhancing textiles with electronic functionalities, e-textiles define a new frontier of wearable platforms for human augmentation. To realize the transformational impact of wearable e-textiles, materials innovations can pave the way for effective user adoption and the creation of a sustainable circular economy. We propose a repair, recycle, replacement and reduction circular e-textile paradigm. We envisage a systematic design framework embodying material selection and biofabrication concepts that can unify environmental friendliness, market viability, supply-chain resilience and user experience quality. This framework establishes a set of actionable principles for the industrialization and commercialization of future sustainable e-textile products.

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Fig. 1: Overarching frameworks that promote the scalable commercialization of e-textiles.
Fig. 2: Materials selection chart for e-textiles and their durability challenge.
Fig. 3: The 4R implementation and sustainability development timeline for e-textiles.
Fig. 4: Emerging material fabricators and biofabrication technologies for different production scales and flexibilities.

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Acknowledgements

We thank J. Jur (from Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA)), N. Khalili (from Inkbox) and other anonymous industrial experts and interviewees who provided their valuable opinions and insights for this Perspective.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: HaoTian Harvey Shi, Yan Yan Shery Huang.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    HaoTian Harvey Shi, Yifei Pan, Xueming Feng, Wenyu Wang, Tawfique Hasan & Yan Yan Shery Huang

  2. The Nanoscience Centre, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    HaoTian Harvey Shi, Yifei Pan, Xueming Feng, Wenyu Wang & Yan Yan Shery Huang

  3. Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada

    HaoTian Harvey Shi

  4. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Lin Xu & Liangbing Hu

  5. Micro- and Nano-technology Research Centre, State Key Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China

    Xueming Feng

  6. Department of Materials, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

    Prasad Potluri

  7. Cambridge Graphene Centre, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Tawfique Hasan

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Shi, H.H., Pan, Y., Xu, L. et al. Sustainable electronic textiles towards scalable commercialization. Nat. Mater. 22, 1294–1303 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-023-01615-z

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