Chameleon-inspired structural color fabrics with photoelectric dual-signal outputs for human motion monitoring

Structural color materials inspired by nature have garnered significant attention in textile dyeing and printing. However, most studies focus on eco-friendly fabric coloring, overlooking the functionality of structural colors. Designing intelligent structural color fabrics that integrate visual sensing and textile finishing technologies presents an ideal yet challenging research opportunity. Herein, a structural color fabric with photoelectric dual-signal outputs that mimics the skin of a chameleon is reported for smart wearable devices, and it is fabricated by integrating knitted fabric with conductive MXene materials and flexible photonic crystal films featuring a non-close-packed structure through thermal bonding, achieving visualized color variation and electrical signal outputs under mechanical strain. The prepared structural color fabric exhibits cyclic and sensitive changes in structural color ( GF f  = 2.07) and relative resistance ( GF e  = −1.45). It is worth mentioning that the MXene is introduced with two important functions: The primary function of the MXene pertains to the establishment of a conductive network, while the secondary function relates to the absorption of the scattered light produced by the photonic crystals. In addition, the black appearance of the conductive fabric is replaced by an adjustable structural color that serves the user’s aesthetic needs for the product. This work provides novel insights into the development of functional structural color fabrics and demonstrates the great promise of non-close-packed photonic crystals structural color materials for smart wearable applications.