In recent years, wearable smart devices have developed rapidly. However, due to the constraints of energy storage technology, wearable smart devices have not been industrialized and are used in various civil and military fields. Textile electronic smart devices can integrate smart devices and fibrous energy storage devices, utilizing the flexibility and high surface area of textiles, and storing energy has greater advantages than traditional solid-state batteries. However, it is desirable to achieve high energy storage performance at the same time. Good performance, which poses a huge challenge to textile flexible energy storage materials.

  Recently, the International Joint Laboratory of Advanced Fibers and Low Dimensional Materials of Donghua University (hereinafter referred to as “Joint Laboratory”) has made important research progress in the field of fiber materials and devices, and the related results are “the challenge of wearable electrochemical energy storage fiber electrodes”. Critical insight: challenges and requirements of fibre electrodes for wearable electrochemical energy storage, published in the world's top journal Energy & Environmental Science (the latest impact factor is 30.067), and Selected as the current cover. This paper explores in depth the scientific challenges and technical requirements for the development of wearable energy storage fiber devices, from the performance requirements of fiber electrodes, related characterization techniques, quantitative performance indicators, material recycling applications, and future innovation goals. A systematic discussion was made. From the perspective of fiber and textile engineering and technology, the corresponding challenges and requirements were put forward, and how to integrate the existing traditional textile industry equipment, electronic industrial equipment with new materials and new technologies was considered. In addition, the important significance of this paper is to clarify some key misunderstandings of fiber energy storage devices in time, and clearly point out the development direction of such devices from simple functionalization to real textile applications, and it is expected to lead the frontier research in this field. The work was jointly funded by the Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Action Plan, the Shanghai Chenguang Plan, the National Key R&D Program and the Innovation Team of the Ministry of Education, the Advanced Manufacturing Technology for Fiber Materials and the Science Innovation Base (Project 111).

  The first author of this article is Mike Tebyetekerwa, a 2018 master student of the School of Materials (from Uganda, who is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at the Australian National University), Ifra Marriam (from Pakistan) and the 17th High School of Materials of the Textile Institute. Xu Wei, an undergraduate student in molecular materials and engineering (now co-authored at Queen Mary University of London, London, UK), and other authors include Professor Seeram Ramakrishna of the National University of Singapore, one of the foreign directors of the Joint Laboratory (Royal Academy of Engineering) Academician), Professor Rajan Jose of Pahang University, Malaysia, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering of the School of Materials, Iranian full-time full-time teacher Dr. Fatemeh Zabihi, and Dr. Zhang Hui, a full-time teacher of the Department of Composite Materials. Associate Professor Yang Shengyuan and Associate Professor Zhu Meifang are co-authors.