Smart Polymer Fibers: Promising Advances in Microstructures, Stimuli-Responsive Properties and Applications

The advancement of fiber materials over the centuries has played a crucial role in the progress of human civilization. Smart polymer fibers (SPFs) are a revolutionary family of materials with sensory, feedback, and responsive attributes to chemical and physical stimuli, and are characterized by diverse microscopic structures. Multidimensional fiber microstructures have been fabricated by sophisticated preparation technologies, such as electrospinning, wet spinning, and microfluidic spinning, resulting in SPFs with responsiveness to various stimuli, such as thermal, pH, light, electricity, moisture, magnetic field, and multiple stimuli-responsive properties. In the past decade, cross-disciplinary developments in the refinement, intellectualization, and functionalization of SPFs and notable progress in the fibers' microstructure and stimuli-responsive properties have enabled wide applications in biomedicine, smart textiles, sensors, and water treatment. Herein, to comprehensively facilitate SPFs development in multidisciplinary and multifunctional domains, we elaborate on the correlation among material classification, microstructures formed by common preparation processes, stimuli-responsive properties, and their comprehensive applications. Finally, we aim to inspire scientists with diverse research backgrounds to apply multidisciplinary knowledge to promote the development and industrialization of SPFs.