Textile-Based Flexible Temperature Sensors for Wearable and Sports Applications

Flexible textile-based sensors are versatile alternatives that can be comfortably worn and can detect a broad range of body and environment temperatures. Furthermore, they become more essential due to the recent rise in the use of wearable customized gadgets, wearable clothing, sports, medical, and soft robotics. Typically made from rigid materials like metals or semiconductors, traditional temperature sensors are heavy, inflexible, and difficult to wear since they can only endure very slight variations in their physical shape to be placed on any irregularly shaped object. In this review, developments in textile temperature sensors are discussed with a focus on their performance, fabrication techniques, advances in various materials, and applications, such as wearable monitoring and sports. Moreover, an in-depth analysis of different performance parameters is also presented. Lastly, to provide useful guidance and directions for future study, it is concluded by outlining the current limitations of this field, and future recommendations for the scientific community to further explore other facets of textile temperature devices.