Vapor phase polymerized conducting polymer/MXene textiles for wearable electronics.

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Nanotechnology
• Textile Engineering

Background:

• Integrating multiple functions into electronic textiles without compromising fabric properties is a significant challenge.
• Wearable electronics require advanced materials for diverse applications like energy storage and sensing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel and facile strategy for creating multifunctional electronic textiles.
• To integrate PEDOT (poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)) and Ti3C2Tx MXene (a 2D transition metal carbide) onto cotton fabric surfaces.
• To evaluate the electrochemical, joule heating, electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding, and strain sensing capabilities of the modified textiles.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a combination of vapor phase polymerization (VPP) and spray-coating techniques.
• Fabricated a laminated film comprising PEDOT and Ti3C2Tx MXene sheets on cotton fibers.
• Characterized the resulting PEDOT/MXene decorated cotton fabrics for various performance metrics.

Main Results:

• Achieved a low sheet resistance of 3.6 Ω sq-1.
• Fabric supercapacitors demonstrated an ultrahigh specific capacitance of 1000.2 mF cm-2, surpassing existing MXene-based devices.
• Exhibited exceptional joule heating (193.1 °C at 12 V), high EMI shielding (36.62 dB), and sensitive strain sensing for human motion detection.

Conclusions:

• The developed PEDOT/MXene decorated cotton fabrics are multifunctional, exhibiting superior performance in energy storage, heating, EMI shielding, and sensing.
• The novel VPP and spray-coating strategy offers a promising route for designing advanced multifunctional textiles.
• This work lays the foundation for the development of next-generation multifunctional wearable electronics.