Imitation‐mussel‐based high‐performance conductive coating on hydrophobic fabric for thermochromic application

Abstract

ABSTRACTOn the basis of mussel inspiration, a common and low‐cost method for preparing a high‐performance poly‐3,4‐ethylene dioxythiophene (PEDOT) coating was proposed. First, cheap imitation‐mussel tannin–iron materials with universal adhesion properties were used as a modified coating on hydrophobic polypropylene nonwoven fabric. Because of the excellent wettability and ion chelating properties of the modified coating, a high‐performance PEDOT coating was successfully prepared later without complicated and expensive equipment. The PEDOT coating, with a conductivity of above 50 S/cm, could successfully realize the electric–thermal conversion at an appropriate current, and then, an obvious thermochromic effect on a pattern occurred; this is the key to achieving the functional textiles. The role of the artificial mussel adhesion materials in the modified coating were analyzed and are discussed. The results of this study provide new insight into preparing highly conductive coatings at low cost with potential practical applications in many fields. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019, 136, 47751.