Multifunctional Electronic Textiles for the Simultaneous Detection and Uptake of Hydrogen Sulfide

This paper describes the fabrication of multifunctional electronic textiles (e-textiles) capable of simultaneous detection and uptake of hydrogen sulfide (H2S). Hydrothermal templation of the bismuth-based framework (Bi(HHTP)) onto the textile installs a conductive coating from the molecular building blocks of 2,3,6,7,10,11-hexahydroxytriphenylene (HHTP) and bismuth acetate. Electronic textile (e-textile) surfaces achieve average Bi(HHTP) loadings of 8 ± 2 mg cm−2, corresponding to 20% ± 4% of the e-textile being Bi(HHTP) by mass, and demonstrate average resistivities of 1.26 kΩ cm−1 with good stability to withstand mechanical stressors. The resulting e-textiles exhibit an analyte-selective, concentration-dependent chemiresistive response to H2S from 80 to 5 ppm, with good selectivity toward H2S over SO2, NO, NO2, NH3, and CO. The materials reach micro-breakthrough capacities of up to 16.8 and 14.8 mmol g−1 under exposure to 4.6% H2S, for e-textile and bulk powder, respectively. Spectroscopic analysis suggests that material–analyte interactions are characterized by the formation of polysulfide species. The resulting electronic textile represents a novel approach toward the development of smart membranes capable of simultaneous sensing and filtration of H2S.