Smart Textile and Polymer Materials

Dear Colleagues,

Smart or intelligent structures are those that are either solely capable of sensing changes in their environment or have the dual functionality of not only detecting various stimuli in their environment but are also able to respond to these changes in their environment. Smart textiles are a kind of smart fabric or material that have the capability to physically respond to their environment or external stimuli in their behavior, such as electrical, size, optical, chemical, biochemical triggers or enzymatic activity. Smart textiles can maintain some of the intrinsic properties of traditional textiles when their environment or external stimuli change. In general, smart textiles can be created by coating smart polymers in industrial technologies, forming polymer network structures; this can be achieved through crosslinking around the fibers of fabrics.

This Special Issue entitled “Smart Textile and Polymer Materials” is dedicated to recent research and development regarding smart textiles and response-based polymer materials, including, but not limited to, fiber-based energy harvesting devices, energy storage devices, chromatic devices, color and shape changes, sensing, drug release, and ultraviolet resistant, electrically conductive, optical, hydrophobic and flame-retardant materials. Papers concerning thermal-responsive polymers, moisture-responsive polymers, thermal-responsive hydrogels, pH-responsive hydrogels, and light-responsive polymers which are attractive to be applied in the field of smart textiles, as well as fabrication procedures and application characteristics of multifunctional fiber devices such as fiber-shaped solar cells, lithium–ion batteries, actuators and electrochromic fibers are also welcome.

This Special Issue will publish full research papers, communications, and critical reviews. It will provide a premier interdisciplinary platform for researchers from universities, research centers, and industry working on smart textiles and polymers around the world to share the latest results, the most recent innovations, trends, and concerns as well as the synthesis and characterization of smart materials in their applications in basic and industrial processes.

Prof. Dr. Yang Zhou
Prof. Dr. Zhaoling Li
Guest Editors

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. Polymers 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 2700 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.