Functional textiles and composite based wearable thermal devices for Joule heating: progress and perspectives

Balancing personal thermal comfort is crucial through controlled heating for thermal management and energy saving. The traditional thermo-regulation systems consume a vast amount of energy to maintain thermal comfort. Thus, advanced materials and strategies have been devised to design wearable devices that minimize energy consumption as well as enhance thermal comfort through heating at an individual level. This review has critically discussed the recent advancements in wearable heating devices, focusing on strategies that have been used for developing advanced textiles and composite structures to regulate heat transfer between the human body and environment for personal heating. The review starts with a discussion on the fundamentals of thermal comfort and thermal management that are prerequisites for advanced electronic heating devices. Subsequently,…