Layer-by-layer stacked full-color-changeable photonic textiles for naked-eye-readable sensing

Color-changeable smart textiles capable of converting external stimulus into change in eye-perceptible colors are promising for visual sensor and wearable devices. However, conventional color-changeable smart textiles based on functional chemical dyes suffer the narrow-ranged color shifting and hence the bad visual interaction resolution. In this work, inspired by that chameleon rapidly tuning skin iridescence through active tuning of guanine nanocrystal spacing, a full-color-changeable textile equipped with a cholesteric photonic skin is developed via layer-by-layer assembly strategy by using sustainable nanocellulose as photonic ink to work with graphene oxide as light absorber and polyvinyl alcohol as plasticizer. After assembled, a multi-phase layered stacking coupled with Janus surface structure forms, hence generating structural synergic effects bringing multi functions for the resulting photonic textile, including flexible optical adjustability, strong-tough combination, hydration-setting formability, and progressive wettability. More impressively, resultant photonic textiles present wide-ranged color-shifting capability with a high identifiability outperforming most of conventional color-changeable textiles, demonstrating great feasibility to monitor the directional water transport process, diverse organic componence volatilization, and ambient humidity, in a naked-eye-readable, real-time, and quantifiable manner.