A bio-inspired, green, and universal preparation method to develop textile-based solar energy storage heater and ammonia leakage monitor sensor

Flexible and smart devices, especially wearable textiles, play a significant role in constantly upgrading modern healthcare and safety management. Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) has attracted much attention because of its outstanding performance, for instance, high stability, conductivity, and biocompatibility. However, PEDOT is not adaptable to the current textile industry because PEDOT has no functional groups that react with the fabrics. Herein, we have reported a facile in situ enzymatic polymerization method to prepare conductive and flexible PEDOT textiles. Polydopamine (PDA) serves as a universal adhesive to enhance the combined force of PEDOT and any fabrics, providing a secondary reaction platform for the assembly of PEDOT particles. We have polymerized conductive PEDOT on polyester-latex mesh, knitted cotton, woven wool, and polyester nonwoven fabrics with PDA treatment successfully. It should be noted that the surface temperature of the solar energy-thermal storage heater can rapidly reach 57.9 °C with 1 sun under the synergistic effect of PEDOT and PDA. In addition, PEDOT-coated ammonia gas sensor has outstanding anti-wet interference, wide detection limit, reusability, and excellent selectivity for common volatile organic compounds. This method of preparing durable coated fabrics has the potential to be widely applied in the development and design of next-generation wearable devices.