From natural leather to intelligent wearable nanocomposite: design and application

Abstract

As a natural material, leather has been widely used in daily life due to its high biocompatibility, wearing comfort, and excellent mechanical strength. However, with the increasing demand for a better life among people, the single function of leather has difficulty in meeting the requirements, which limits its application prospects. It is particularly important to develop multifunctional leather composites with diverse characteristics. Therefore, leather can be modified and functionally designed through physical and chemical methods towards intelligent wearable devices. From this perspective, we review the research progress of intelligent leather-based wearable composites, mainly focusing on the preparation methods and application directions in recent years. Finally, we emphasize the challenges that leather composites will face in practical applications and propose future research directions.

Keywords

Leather / flexible electronics / soft sensors / safeguarding / thermal management

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