SMART CHROMIC COLORANTS DRAW WIDE ATTENTION FOR THE GROWTH OF FUTURE INTELLIGENT TEXTILE MATERIALS

Technology is getting smaller and faster and we all know the speed of this development is increasing. We see an on- going miniaturization and production of materials equipped with special properties. It is possible to integrate properties of sensitivity, information and intelligence into single materials. 'First generation' textiles refer to one of humanity's earliest technologies, the spinning and weaving of natural fibers. 'Second generation textiles' were developed as alternatives to natural fibers and included synthetic, petroleum- based fibers. Most recently, we have moved towards 'Third generation' textiles, enabled by the latest advances in material and biological sciences, nanotechnology and intelligent systems. Intelligent textiles represent the next generation of fibers, fabrics and articles produced from them. Many smart textiles already feature in advanced types of clothing, principally for protection and safety and for added fashion or convenience. Intelligent textiles provide ample evidence of the potential and the enormous wealth of opportunities still to be realized in the textile industry, in the colorful color changing fashion and clothing sector, as well as in the technical textiles sector. One of the main reasons for the fast development of smart textiles is due to the importance given to the military applications. This is because they are used in different projects such as extreme winter condition jackets or uniforms that change color so as to improve camouflage effects. In this article, we are going to describe Chameleonic behaviors (color changing property) of textiles, mechanisms and their applications. The majority of applications for chromic materials in the textile sector today are in the fashion and design area, in leisure and sports garments. Commercial applications of color change materials are very common and include photochromics in ophthalmics, fashion/ cosmetics, optical- memory and optical switches, thermochromics in paints, plastics, textiles and architecture, electrochromics in car mirrors and smart windows, and solvatochromics in biological probes