Advances in Directional Liquid Transport Textiles: Mechanism, Construction, and Applications

Abstract The seamless integration of emerging directional liquid transport (DLT) technology with traditional textile materials has ushered in the next‐generation multifunctional textiles, i.e., DLT textiles, which will play a vital role in areas such as wearable smart materials and ecological environmental protection. To further promote the combination of DLT technology and textile technology, a concise overview of the research progress in DLT textiles, including the basic transport mechanisms, various preparation strategies and diversified applications of DLT textiles is provided. In this review, the theoretical mechanisms of directional transport from the perspective of wetting and wicking is discussed. Besides, the preparation strategies of DLT textiles, and categorized them into three categories is summarized: fiber‐based DLT textiles, fabric‐based DLT textiles, and fiber/fabric hybrid‐based textiles. Subsequently, the current and potential applications of DLT textiles are classified and discussed, mainly focusing on functional clothing, oil‐water separation, fog collection, distillation, sensors, biomedicine, and so on. Finally, the challenges and prospects of DLT textile research to enhance the functionality and application performance is outlined.