Advances in Textile Materials: Structure, Characterization and Functional Design
A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Advanced Composites".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 October 2026 | Viewed by 20
Special Issue Editor
Interests: functional textiles; smart textiles; advanced textile materials
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Textile materials have evolved from traditional fabrics for protection and decoration into highly engineered systems with structural, sensing, and energy-related functions. Recent progress in advanced fibers, nanocomposites, and multifunctional yarns has significantly expanded the application scope of textiles in wearable electronics, biomedical devices, intelligent sensing, and soft robotics. In particular, the integration of nanomaterials—such as carbon-based nanofillers, conductive polymers, and two-dimensional materials—into polymer matrices has enabled the development of textile-based composites with enhanced mechanical robustness, electrical conductivity, thermal stability, and environmental adaptability. Meanwhile, innovations in spinning technologies (e.g., wet spinning, electrospinning, and coaxial spinning), yarn architecture design, and textile structural engineering (including weaving, knitting, and embroidery integration) have provided new opportunities to tailor multi-scale structures from fiber to fabric. Advanced characterization techniques and modeling approaches, including finite element analysis and data-driven optimization, further deepen the understanding of structure–property relationships and guide rational functional design. These advances highlight the growing importance of textile materials as a versatile platform for next-generation functional systems.
This Special Issue aims to present and disseminate the most recent advances in the structure regulation, performance characterization, and functional design of advanced textile materials. We invite contributions addressing innovative fiber fabrication strategies, nanocomposite-based yarn systems, textile structural engineering, and multifunctional integration for intelligent and wearable applications. Particular attention will be given to research that explores the coupling mechanisms between mechanical deformation and electrical/thermal responses, scalable manufacturing approaches for industrial translation, and theoretical or computational modeling of textile-based functional systems. Both fundamental studies and application-oriented investigations are welcome.
Topics of interest for publication include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Textile-integrated electronic skin and intelligent sensing systems;
- Advanced spinning technologies for high-performance and multifunctional fibers;
- Structure–property relationships in textile-based composite systems;
- Textile architectures with enhanced stretchability, durability, and mechanical adaptability;
- Flexible and wearable sensors based on fiber and fabric platforms;
- Finite element modeling and simulation of wearable textile materials;
- Data-driven design and optimization of smart textile systems;
- Scalable manufacturing and industrialization of smart textile materials.
Prof. Dr. Zhaoqun Du
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Materials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- advanced textile materials
- textile-based electronic skin
- nanocomposite fibers
- structure–property relationship
- functional and smart textile design
- wearable sensing systems
- multi-scale structural engineering
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