Search

Although flexible and multifunctional textiles are promising for wearable electronics and portable device applications, the main issue is to endow textiles with multifunctionalities while maintaining their innate flexible and porous features. Herein, a vacuum‐assisted layer‐by‐layer assembly technique is demonstrated to conformally deposit electrically conductive substances on textiles for developing multifunctional and flexible textiles with superb electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding performances, superhydrophobicity, and highly sensitive humidity response. The formed leaf‐like nanostructure is composed of silver nanowires (AgNWs) as the highly conductive skeleton (vein) and transition metal carbide/carbonitride (MXene) nanosheets as the lamina. The presence of MXene protects AgNWs from oxidation and enhances the combination of AgNWs with the fabric substrate, and the transformation of its functional groups leads to self‐derived hydrophobicity. The flexible and multifunctional textile exhibits a low sheet resistance of 0.8 Ω sq−1, outstanding EMI shielding efficiency of 54 dB in the X‐band at a small thickness of 120 µm, and highly sensitive humidity responses, while retaining its satisfactory porosity and permeability. The self‐derived hydrophobicity with a large contact angle of >140° is achieved by aging the hydrophilic MXene coated silk. The wearable multifunctional textiles are highly promising for applications in intelligent garments, humidity sensors, actuators, and EMI shielding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although multifunctional, flexible, and wearable textiles with integrated smart electronics have attracted tremendous attention in recent years, it is still an issue to balance new functionalities with the inherent performances of the textile substrates. 2D early transition metal carbides/nitrides (MXenes) are considered as ideal nanosheets for fabricating multifunctional and flexible textiles on the basis of their superb intrinsic electrical conductivity, tunable surface chemistry, and layered structure. Herein, highly conductive and hydrophobic textiles with exceptional electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding efficiency and excellent Joule heating performance are fabricated by depositing in situ polymerized polypyrrole (PPy) modified MXene sheets onto poly(ethylene terephthalate) textiles followed by a silicone coating. The resultant multifunctional textile exhibits high electrical conductivity of ≈1000 S m−1 in conjunction with an exceptional EMI shielding efficiency of ≈90 dB at a thickness of 1.3 mm. The thin silicone coating renders the hydrophilic PPy/MXene‐decorated textile hydrophobic, leading to an excellent water‐resistant feature while retaining a satisfactory air permeability of the textile. Interestingly, the multifunctional textile also exhibits an excellent moderate voltage‐driven Joule heating performance. Thus, the deposition of PPy‐modified MXene followed by silicone coating creates a multifunctional textile that holds great promise for wearable intelligent garments, EMI shielding, and personal heating applications. An efficient and scalable dip‐coating approach for the fabrication of flexible multifunctional transition metal carbides/nitrides (MXenes)‐derived textiles by decorating polypyrrole‐modified MXene sheets onto polyethylene terephthalate textiles followed by silicone coating is reported. The highly conductive and hydrophobic textiles show exceptional electromagnetic interference shielding efficiency, outstanding water‐resistant feature, and excellent Joule heating performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]