AgNWs/MXene derived multifunctional knitted fabric capable of high electrothermal conversion efficiency, large strain and temperature sensing, and EMI shielding

Human thermal comfort management, motion capture and protection are highly needed in electronic wearable devices for their stretchability, wearing comfort, and versatility. Multifunctional smart textile becomes a favorable solution. Here, multifunctional electronic knitted fabric for strain sensing and thermal management is provided by a simple dip-coating process, involving the deposition of one-dimensional (1D) silver nanowires (AgNWs) and two-dimensional (2D) transition metal carbide/carbonitride (MXene) nanosheet. This multifunctional knitted fabric possesses excellent mechanical durability (>1000 cyclic stretching) and a wide strain sensing range limitation (~445%) comes from the high elastic knitted fabric. In addition, outstanding Joule heating (When the current is 0.10 A (A), the fabric can reach an equilibrium temperature of around 126 °C within 37 s, with a great electrothermal conversion efficiency hr+c of 0.13 and a maximum heating rate of 9.73 °C/s) and temperature sensing performance (temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) of − 0.07%/°C) are achieved. Moreover, this smart fabric gives a high EMI shielding performance (44 dB). This work provides multifunctional AgNWs/MXene fabric using a simple dip-coating process for physical monitoring, wearable thermal management and other applications.