Mussel-Inspired Flexible, Durable, and Conductive Fibers Manufacturing for Finger-Monitoring Sensors

Here a bioinspired facile and versatile method is reported for fabricating highly durable, washable, and electrically conductive fibers and yarns. Self-polymerized dopamine plays as adherent layers for substrates and then captures Pd2+ catalyst for subsequent metal deposition on substrates. The Pd2+ ions are chelated and partially reduced to nanoparticles by polydopamine (PDA)-modified substrates and the catalytic performance is investigated in surface electroless deposition. Importantly, this is the first report about PDA as both ligand and enhancement in Pd catalyst system, and the mechanism of their excellent catalytic performance is studied by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. This approach can be extended as a general method for fabricating conductors from all kinds of substrates and precursory research about PDA/Pd catalyst application in surface catalysis.