Synergistically coupled double conductive coating-based electronic textiles with superhydrophobic and high-performance strain sensing properties for underwater human motion sensing applications

Electronic textiles have shown great application potential as wearable strain sensors for human behaviors monitoring, due to their excellent flexibility and skin affinity. However, developing textile-based sensors with high strain sensing performance and ensuring stable human motion detection in harsh environments still represent major challenges. Herein, we fabricated a superhydrophobic electronic textile with a synergistically coupled double conductive coating, in which the first coating layer was conductive Ti3C2TX (MXene), while the second layer consisted of a conductive composite with hierarchical mastoid structure. The outer coating could protect the inner MXene layer from oxidation and provide a superhydrophobic surface, furtherly broadening the application scope of the double-coated textile (D-textile) in wearable electronic devices, such as sweating, rain and even underwater conditions. Surprisingly, the synergistic coupling effect of dual conductive coatings greatly improved the strain sensing performance compared with that of traditional MXene-coated textile, with the gauge factor increasing from 234.2 to 2.5 × 105, the maximum strain sensing range expending from 100% to 200%, and the low strain detection limit from 0.4% to 0.2%. The proposed electronic D-textile provided a simple and efficient underwater communication method, which can be of great value in all human activities performed within marine environments.