Wearable electronics have the potential to advance personalized health care, alleviate disability, enhance communication, and improve homeland security. Development of multifunctional electronic textiles (e-textiles) with the capacity to interact with the local environment is a promising strategy for achieving electronic transduction of physical and chemical information. This paper describes a simple and rapid approach for fabricating multifunctional e-textiles by integrating conductive two-dimensional (2D) metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) into fabrics through direct solution-phase self-assembly from simple molecular building blocks. These e-textiles display reliable conductivity, enhanced porosity, flexibility, and stability to washing. The functional utility of these integrated systems is demonstrated in the context of chemiresistive gas sensing, uptake, and filtration. The self-organized frameworks on textiles (SOFT)-devices detect and differentiate important gaseous analytes (NO, H2S, and H2O) at ppm levels and maintain their chemiresistive function in the presence of humidity (5000 ppm, 18% RH). With sub-ppm theoretical limits of detection (LOD for NO = 0.16 ppm and for H2S = 0.23 ppm), these constitute the best textile-supported H2S and NO detectors reported and the best MOF-based chemiresistive sensors for these analytes. In addition to sensing, these devices are capable of capturing and filtering analytes.

Carbon nanomaterials have promising utility in chemical sensing including applications in preserving occupational safety, monitoring of environmental pollution, and human health. While recent advances in device fabrication and molecular design of functional materials have enabled rapid fabrication of chemical sensors from carbon nanomaterials, limited efforts have focused on translating these discoveries into undergraduate curriculum. This paper describes a safe and engaging laboratory exercise that introduces undergraduates and younger students to modern nanoscience while illustrating fundamental principles of general chemistry that include concepts of orbital hybridization, allotropes, and intermolecular interactions. Solid-state devices are prepared on shrinkable polymer film substrates equipped with hand-drawn graphite electrodes. Chemiresistive sensing materials, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphite powder, are compressed into pellets and drawn directly into this device architecture to produce functional sensors capable of detecting and differentiating gases and vapors based on differences in intermolecular interactions.Keywords: Conductivity; First-Year Undergraduate/General; Gases; Hands-On Learning/Manipulatives; High School/Introductory Chemistry; Laboratory Instruction; Materials Science; Nanotechnology; Organic Chemistry; Upper-Division Undergraduate;

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are used as adhesives that can be removed on-demand by sublimation without application of solvent or mechanical force. These adhesives are polycrystalline solids that enable bonding of glass, metal, and plastic with lap shear forces ranging from 5 to 50 N cm–2. Systematic examination of factors governing bonding suggests that favorable chemical interactions between bonded surfaces and PAHs, and structural features at the surface of the substrate influence both the lap shear force and the mechanism of failure. Utilizing sublimable PAHs enables sequential bonding and release of substrates, as well as control of actuation of electronic systems through mechanical work.