Prof. TAO Xiaoming, Director of Research Institute for Wearable Intelligent Systems (RI-IWEAR), Vincent and Lily Woo Professor and Chair Professor of Textile Technology of School of Fashion and Textiles, and her research team published a paper titled “Vector-stimuli-responsive magnetorheological fibrous materials” in Nature recently.
The team has developed polymer composite fibres that rapidly and reversibly alter their shape and mechanical properties when exposed to safe, low-strength magnetic fields. These programmable textiles hold significant promise for applications in soft robotics, electromagnetic devices and wearable technology. Traditional magnetorheological (MR) materials, such as fluids and polymer composites, can change their properties under magnetic fields but are often limited by their unstable and unreliable performance. To overcome these limitations, the researchers created soft-magnetic polymer composite fibres, just 57 microns in diameter, by evenly dispersing carbonyl-iron particles within a low-density polyethylene matrix. This design prevents sedimentation and enables effective magnetic alignment.
The team constructed yarns and multi-layer fabrics from these MR fibres, eliminating the need for non-magnetic bonding agents. Their innovative approach allows for scalable production of textiles from MR fibres that respond to directional (vectorial) magnetic fields. Magneto-mechanical models were developed to optimise fibre and yarn structures, resulting in bendable MR yarns whose stiffness can vary up to thirtyfold, depending on the direction of the magnetic field. Demonstrated applications include active ventilation fabrics, flexible grippers and haptic gloves. This breakthrough combines tunable stiffness and versatile deformation with the lightweight, breathable qualities of textiles, paving the way for advanced soft robotics and wearable systems.
Read the full article: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09706-4
Further reading: https://www.polyu.edu.hk/riiwear/news-and-events/news/2020/nov-nature/
| Research Units | Research Institute for Intelligent Wearable Systems |
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