Silk-based flexible electronics and smart wearable Textiles: Progress and beyond

Flexible electronics and smart wearable textiles have been widely used in healthcare monitoring, flexible sensing, thermal management, protective clothing, energy storage, and conversion devices owing to their light weight, user-friendliness, and high-throughput performance. Silk is a traditional fiber material and is one of the most promising candidates for flexible electronics and smart wearable textiles owing to its excellent mechanical properties, outstanding wearing comfort, good biocompatibility, and biodegradability. Silk can be integrated with flexible electrons into textiles or developed into advanced materials such as conductive fibers, membranes, hydrogels, and scaffolds for smart wearable devices, including actuators, sensors, electronic skin, self-generating devices, energy storage devices, microneedles, and radiation-cooling smart textiles. In this work, we review the spinning formation, unique hierarchical and chemical structures, and fundamental properties of silk fibers. Subsequently, the preparation methods, working mechanisms, and applications of silk materials in various flexible electronics and smart wearable textiles are reviewed. Finally, the persistent challenges and prospects of silk-based flexible electronics and smart wearable textiles are discussed.