A review on textile-based humidity sensors for wearable physical monitoring

Purpose The aim of this review is to present together the studies on textile-based moisture sensors developed using innovative technologies in recent years. Design/methodology/approach The integration levels of the sensors studied with the textile materials are changing. Some research teams have used a combination of printing and textile technologies to produce sensors, while a group of researchers have used traditional technologies such as weaving and embroidery. Others have taken advantage of new technologies such as electro-spinning, polymerization and other techniques. In this way, they tried to combine the good working efficiency of the sensors and the flexibility of the textile. All these approaches are presented in this article. Findings The presentation of the latest technologies used to develop textile sensors together will give researchers an idea about new studies that can be done on highly sensitive and efficient textile-based moisture sensor systems. Originality/value In this paper humidity sensors have been explained in terms of measuring principle as capacitive and resistive. Then, studies conducted in the last 20 years on the textile-based humidity sensors have been presented in detail. This is a comprehensive review study that presents the latest developments together in this area for researchers.