Caffeic acid induced in-situ growth of AgNWs on cotton fabric for temperature and pressure sensing and electrical interference shielding

In recent years, smart wearable devices with thermal management, sensing response, and electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding have gained great attention in multiple fields. In this work, high aspect ratios AgNWs with a diameter of 40 ∼ 60 nm and a length of 40 ∼ 60 μm generated in situ on the surface of cotton fabrics at room temperature using caffeic acid as reducing agent and anchoring agent, and polyvinypyrrolidone (PVP) as template agent. The preparation method is green, low cost and easy to scale up. The resulting flexible silver nanowire/cotton fabric (AgNW/cotton fabric) with a sheet resistance of 0.23 Ω/sq possesses good physical properties, excellent and durable stability of electrical conductivity. The prepared flexible AgNW/cotton fabric show good temperature and pressure sensing performance. Temperature sensing performance of AgNW/cotton fabric allows it to be used as a temperature alarm in agricultural greenhouses and textile fire. Pressure sensing of AgNW/cotton fabric exhibits high sensitivity (∼-53 % kPa−1), fast response (100 ms), low detection limit (73.1 mg) and recyclability, which reveals its potential practical value for personal health monitoring, human–computer interaction and entertainment. AgNW/cotton fabric can quickly reach 54.8 °C and 86.2 °C through electrical-thermal and photo-thermal conversions, respectively, which is hopefully used as a wearable heater for self-heating garments and smart heat therapy. Additionally, AgNW/cotton fabric exhibits an EMI shielding efficiency of 38.2 dB in X-band. AgNW/cotton fabrics have great potential in manufacturing flexible, breathable and multi-functional flexible wearable textile devices.