Preparation of fabric-based electronic device via surface topological modification and enzymatic polymerization for personal thermal management, subtle motion detection, and ultraviolet protection

Abstract

With the increasingly severe problem of population aging, human motion detection and personal thermal management have attracted widespread attention in the field of smart wearable electronics. However, the current multifunctional flexible devices face problems, such as lower stability and poor comfort, which greatly hinder their further development. In this work, an improved fabrication strategy combining in situ enzymatic polymerization and surface topological modification is proposed to facile and efficiently prepare poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/polyacrylamide (PEDOT/PAAm) smart fabric. To increase the conductivity and the bonding force between fabric and PEDOT particles, the PAAm was used to pre-construct a microgel layer on the surface of cotton fabric to make PEDOT uniformly coated on the fabric, thus forming a highly electrically conductive interconnection network. The resulting fabric samples show outstanding duel-driven thermal performance (88.6 °C for 2 sun, 84.5 °C for 10 V), satisfactory detection capability for subtle and rapid motion (drops of water and paper pill, bending of fingers), and remarkable ultraviolet protection performance (24.6 times than the UPF value of unmodified fabric sample). All in all, multifunctional fabric-based devices with remarkable performance exhibited great application potential in rehabilitation therapy and personal home care, especially for people with disabilities and older people.