Magnetic Textiles: A Review of Materials, Fabrication, Properties, and Applications

Magnetic textiles merge the structural adaptability of fibrous architectures with the tunability of magnetic materials to create lightweight, flexible, and field-responsive systems. These architectures range from nearly fully magnetic ceramic or metallic fibers based on ferrites, metal alloys, or rare-earth compounds, which set the upper bound on magnetic performance, to polymer-based magnetic composites that trade part of this intrinsic performance for flexibility and textile processability. This review organizes the field across materials, fabrication, properties, and applications. We detailed magnetic classes, including hard-magnetic, soft-magnetic, and superparamagnetic materials, textile matrices, including natural, synthetic, and composite polymers, emphasizing dispersion and interfacial engineering, and additives for property enhancement or functionalization. Fabrication strategies are mapped from fiber making and yarn assembly to fabric integration, surface functionalization, and magnetization programming, linking industrial spinning and coating processes with emerging additive and field-assisted methods. Core magneto-responses like magnetoelectric, magnetoresistive, magnetostrictive, and magnetoelastic are discussed in relation to textile performance and device translation. Finally, we outline challenges in scalability, durability, and sustainability, and identify frontiers in programmable architectures, multifunctional hybrids, and bio-integrated magnetic systems. By bridging materials science and textile engineering, M-textiles are positioned as a foundation for next-generation adaptive structures, wearable technologies, and soft robotics.