Smart textiles

In plain language

A normal piece of clothing is made of threads. Smart textiles add electronic parts to those threads, or make the threads themselves carry electricity. The aim is for the electronics to behave like part of the fabric: they should bend, stretch and go through a washing machine rather than sitting in a rigid box sewn onto the garment.

Research groups have shown several routes. One is to weave conductive threads and light-emitting threads together so that a display forms where they cross. Another is to make a thin fibre that holds sensors, a small computer, memory and a battery in one elastic strand. A third is to coat or knit conductive yarns so that they can sense touch, movement or the body's electrical signals. Most of these demonstrations are still in the laboratory, and the main open question is whether they survive years of wear and repeated washing.

Some simple textile sensors are already on sale. Hexoskin sells a shirt with built-in textile sensors that records physiological data when paired with a separate recording device. The electronics in the fibre-computer and textile-display studies are not yet sold as consumer products.

Technical explanation

Smart textiles combine three kinds of component: conductive yarns or coatings, active elements such as light-emitting or transistor structures, and power and processing. In the 2021 work from Fudan University, a 6 metre by 25 centimetre display textile was made by weaving conductive weft threads with luminescent warp threads. The electroluminescent units form where the threads cross. The paper reports about 5 x 10^5 such units, brightness that varies by less than 8 per cent across the display, and stable output when the fabric is bent, stretched or pressed. The abstract says the display withstands repeated machine washing but does not give the number of cycles in the summary consulted here.

Fibre electronics take a different route, building devices inside a thin elastic fibre. In a 2025 Nature paper from MIT's Fibers@MIT group, a single fibre contained sensors, a microcontroller, digital memory, Bluetooth and optical communication modules, and a lithium-ion battery. MIT News reports that the fibre can stretch more than 60 per cent without failure. In early tests, a single fibre computer recognised four exercises (squats, planks, arm circles and lunges) with about 70 per cent accuracy, and four networked fibre computers in one outfit reached nearly 95 per cent. In January 2026, a Fudan University team reported a fibre chip 1 millimetre long holding up to 10,000 transistors, built as a multilayered spiral of circuitry inside fibres as thin as 50 micrometres. The university announcement says a one-metre fibre could hold millions of transistors; this is a projection, not a measured result.

Durability is the main technical weakness. Conductive coatings such as silver are removed or oxidised by friction, detergent chemistry, heat and tumble drying. In a 2024 study of silver-coated knitted fabric, surface resistance rose from a control value of 0.18 ohms per square to 0.67 after washing with a neutral detergent (+276 per cent) and to 0.46 with an alkaline reference powder (+160 per cent). Machine drying gave 0.46 and air drying gave 0.32. A 2020 study of silver-plated textile electrodes found that liquid detergent was preferable to powder, which the authors attributed to bleaching agents in powder detergents. Test protocols vary widely between studies, so the figures above are not directly comparable.

What the evidence says

Each statement is typed by the strength of its evidence and linked to the source that supports it.

Limitations and open problems

• Washing results are not comparable across studies. The 2024 study reports resistance changes for a silver-coated knitted fabric, but its text is inconsistent about the number of wash cycles (five repeats in the Methods, 'after 10 washes' in one results section), so no cycle count is cited.
• The 2021 display textile is described as withstanding repeated machine washing, but the number of cycles and the resistance after washing are not given in the abstract consulted for this profile.
• The MIT fibre computer article reports the fibre as machine washable but gives no wash-test details. Its 70 and nearly 95 per cent accuracy figures come from small exercise-recognition tests. MIT News describes a planned Arctic field trial but reports no results from it.
• The 10,000-transistor figure is for a 1 millimetre fibre chip. The university's figure for a metre of fibre is a projection, and no lifetime or durability data for these chips was found in the sources reviewed.
• Silver-based conductive coatings lose performance with washing. In a 2020 study, sodium percarbonate samples exceeded the 10 megaohm measurement range after 20 washes, so bleaching agents are a particular risk.

Possible future uses

Product concepts: Shopping bag that alerts you when it is opened

Timeline

1. 2020Gaubert and colleagues test silver-plated textile electrodes through up to 30 domestic wash cycles and recommend liquid over powder detergent. Sources: [5]
2. 10 Mar 2021Nature publishes a 6 metre by 25 centimetre display textile made by weaving conductive and luminescent fibres, from the Fudan University team led by Huisheng Peng. Sources: [1]
3. 23 Dec 2024RSC Advances publishes a study of washing conditions for silver-coated conductive knitted fabric, measuring surface resistance after different temperatures, detergents and drying methods. Sources: [4]
4. 26 Feb 2025Nature publishes MIT's single-fibre computer, with sensors, memory, a microcontroller, Bluetooth and a battery in one elastic fibre. Sources: [2], [3]
5. 22 Jan 2026Fudan University announces a fibre chip with up to 10,000 transistors in a 1 millimetre length, reported as published in Nature. Sources: [6]

Futures this could help bring about

How far away?

Clothes that monitor your health

Pilots · 4 of 8 steps done

Glossary

Electroluminescence

Light produced by a material when an electric field is applied across it.

Weft and warp

The threads that run across (weft) and along (warp) a woven fabric. Here they are conductive and luminescent threads that meet at display points.

Surface resistance

How strongly a flat conductive layer resists current, measured in ohms per square. A rise after washing shows that the conductive layer is damaged.

Fibre computer

A thin, elastic fibre that contains sensors, a microcontroller, memory and a battery in one strand, as described by MIT's Fibers@MIT group.

Sources

1. peer reviewed paper
   Large-area display textiles integrated with functional systems
   Xiang Shi, Yong Zuo, Peng Zhai et al.. Nature, 10 Mar 2021. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03295-8. Accessed 21 Oct 2026.
2. peer reviewed paper
   A single-fibre computer enables textile networks and distributed inference
   Gupta N, Cheung H, Payra S et al.. Nature, 26 Feb 2025. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08568-6. Accessed 21 Oct 2026.
3. university press release
   Fiber computer allows apparel to run apps and 'understand' the wearer
   Adam Zewe. MIT News, 26 Feb 2025. Accessed 21 Oct 2026.
4. peer reviewed paper
   Optimizing washing conditions for smart fabrics: a comprehensive study
   Suhyun Lee, Sohyun Park. RSC Advances, 23 Dec 2024. DOI: 10.1039/d4ra07365g. Accessed 21 Oct 2026.
5. peer reviewed paper
   Investigating the Impact of Washing Cycles on Silver-Plated Textile Electrodes: A Complete Study
   Valentin Gaubert, Hayriye Gidik, Nicolas Bodart et al.. Sensors, 20 Mar 2020. DOI: 10.3390/s20061739. Accessed 21 Oct 2026.
6. university press release
   'Fiber chip' could be a boon for healthcare
   Fudan University, 22 Jan 2026. Accessed 21 Oct 2026.
7. company announcement
   Hexoskin Smart Shirt - Men's
   Hexoskin, 2026. Accessed 21 Oct 2026.

Revision history

3 changes since this profile was created.