Although
flexible and multifunctional textile-based electronics
are promising for wearable devices, it is still a challenge to seamlessly
integrate excellent conductivity into textiles without sacrificing
their intrinsic flexibility and breathability. Herein, the vertically
interconnected conductive networks are constructed based on a meshy
template of weave cotton fabrics with interwoven warp and weft yarns.
The two-dimensional early transition metal carbides/nitrides (MXenes),
with unique metallic conductivity and hydrophilic surfaces, are uniformly
and intimately attached to the preformed fabric via a spray-drying
coating approach. Through adjusting the spray-drying cycles, the degree
of conductive interconnectivity for the fabrics is precisely tuned,
thereby affording highly conductive and breathable fabrics with integrated
Joule heating, electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding and strain
sensing performances. Interestingly, triggered by the interwoven conductive
architecture, the MXene-decorated fabrics with a low loading of 6
wt % (0.78 mg cm–2) offer an outstanding electrical
conductivity of 5 Ω sq–1. The promising electrical
conductivity further endows the fabrics with superior Joule heating
performance with a heating temperature up to 150 °C at a supply
voltage of 6 V, excellent EMI shielding performance, and highly sensitive
strain responses to human motion. Consequently, this work offers a
novel strategy for the versatile design of multifunctional textile-based
wearable devices.
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