Mussel-inspired washable, fatigue-resistant, and environmental-friendly smart textile for monitoring NH3

Smart textile-based wearable devices show promising application prospects for detecting NH 3 concentrations in environmental and health monitoring. However, mechanical loads and aqueous environments during use can damage the interface between the textile fiber and the sensing layer, posing a challenge to the reliable performance of textile-based sensors. Herein, inspired by the adhesion chemistry of mussels, we report a fatigue-resistant, washable, and environmentally friendly smart textile (PANI-PDA-BF) for monitoring NH₃. This smart textile utilizes natural bamboo fiber (BF) cloth as the substrate, with a polydopamine (PDA) coating to enhance the bonding performance of the polyaniline (PANI) sensing layer to the bamboo fiber, thereby improving fatigue resistance and washability. Experimental results demonstrate that the sensitivity of PANI-PDA-BF only reduced by 11 % and 22 % after 10,000 tensile cycles and 30 min of washing deionized water, which is much lower than the 51 % and 48 % of PANI-BF (without PDA coating). Additionally, PANI-PDA-BF exhibits outstanding environmental-friendly due to the inherent biodegradation of PDA and BF. PANI-PDA-BF's exceptional NH 3 sensing performance, durability, and environmental-friendliness make it an up-and-coming candidate for NH 3 monitoring wearable devices.