Textile-based electronic techniques that can in real-time and noncontact detect the respiration rate and respiratory arrest are highly desired for human health monitoring. Yarn-shaped humidity sensor is fabricated based on a sensitive fiber with relatively high specific surface area and abnormal cross-section. The response and recovery time of the yarnshaped humidity sensor is only 3.5 and 4 s, respectively, with little hysteresis, because of the hydrophobic property of these functional fibers and the grooves on the surface of the fibers, which is much faster than those of the commercial polyimide materials. Moreover, a batteryfree LC wireless testing system combined with the yarn-shaped sensor is fabricated, which is further successfully imbedded into the intelligent mask to detect human breath. Based on the detection of LC wireless testing system, the frequency of 50.25 MHz under the exhaled condition shifts to 50.86 MHz under the inhaled situation of humidity sensor. In essence, the functional yarns with proper structure, would be an excellent candidature to the yarn-shaped humidity sensor, in which there are good performance and wide application possibilities, eventually offering a facile method for the wireless detection of human physiological signals in the field of electronic fabrics.

Textile-based triboelectric nanogenerators (TENG) that can effectively harvest biomechanical energy and sense multifunctional posture and movement have a wide range of applications in next-generation wearable and portable electronic devices. Hence, bulk production of fine yarns with high triboelectric output through a continuous manufacturing process is an urgent task. Here, an ultralight single-electrode triboelectric yarn (SETY) with helical hybridized nano-micro core–shell fiber bundles is fabricated by a facile and continuous electrospinning technology. The obtained SETY device exhibits ultralightness (0.33 mg cm–1), extra softness, and smaller size (350.66 μm in diameter) compared to those fabricated by conventional fabrication techniques. Based on such a textile-based TENG, high energy-harvesting performance (40.8 V, 0.705 μA cm–2, and 9.513 nC cm–2) was achieved by applying a 2.5 Hz mechanical drive of 5 N. Importantly, the triboelectric yarns can identify textile materials according to their different electron affinity energies. In addition, the triboelectric yarns are compatible with traditional textile technology and can be woven into a high-density plain fabric for harvesting biomechanical energy and are also competent for monitoring tiny signals from humans or insects.

Turning insulating silk fibroin materials into conductive ones turns out to be the essential step toward achieving active silk flexible electronics. This work aims to acquire electrically conductive biocompatible fibers of regenerated Bombyx mori silk fibroin (SF) materials based on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) templated nucleation reconstruction of silk fibroin networks. The electronical conductivity of the reconstructed mesoscopic functional fibers can be tuned by the density of the incorporated CNTs. It follows that the hybrid fibers experience an abrupt increase in conductivity when exceeding the percolation threshold of CNTs >35 wt%, which leads to the highest conductivity of 638.9 S m−1 among organic‐carbon‐based hybrid fibers, and 8 times higher than the best available materials of the similar types. In addition, the silk‐CNT mesoscopic hybrid materials achieve some new functionalities, i.e., humidity‐responsive conductivity, which is attributed to the coupling of the humidity inducing cyclic contraction of SFs and the conductivity of CNTs. The silk‐CNT materials, as a type of biocompatible electronic functional fibrous material for pressure and electric response humidity sensing, are further fabricated into a smart facial mask to implement respiration condition monitoring for remote diagnosis and medication.

The ability to pattern natural polymers at different scales is extremely important for many research areas, such as cell culture, regenerative medicine, bioelectronics, tissue engineering, degradable implants, and photonics. For the first time, the use of wool keratin (WK) as a structural biomaterial for fabricating precise protein microarchitectures is presented. Through straightforward biochemical processes, modified WK proteins become intrinsically photoreactive without significant changes in protein structure or function. Under light irradiation, intermolecular chemical crosslinking between WK molecules can be successfully initiated by using commercially available photoinitiators. As a result, high‐performance WK patterning on the micrometer scale (µm) can be achieved through a combination of water‐based photolithography techniques. By simply mixing with nanoparticles, enzymes, and other dopants, various “functional WK resists” can be generated. In addition, without the addition of any cell‐adhesive ligands, these patterned protein microstructures are demonstrated as bio‐friendly cellular substrates for the spatial guidance of cells on their surface. Furthermore, periodic microfabricated WK structures in complex patterns that display typical iridescent behavior can be designed and formed over macroscale areas (cm).

Electronic fabrics that combine traditional fabric with intelligent functionalities have attracted increasing attention. Here an all-fabric pressure sensor with a wireless battery-free monitoring system was successfully fabricated, where a 3D penetrated fabric sandwiched between two highly conductive fabric electrodes acts as a dielectric layer. Thanks to the good elastic recovery of the spacer fabric, the capacitance pressure sensor exhibits a high sensitivity of 0.283 KPa −1 with a fast response time and good cycling stability (≥20 000). Water-soluble poly(vinyl alcohol) template-assisted silver nanofibers were constructed on the highroughness fabric surface to achieve high conductivity (0.33 Ω/sq), remarkable mechanical robustness, and good biocompatibility with human skin. In addition, the coplanar fabric sensor arrays were successfully designed and fabricated to spatially map resolved pressure information. More importantly, the gas-permeable fabrics can be stuck on the skin for wireless real-time pressure detection through a fiber inductor coil with a resonant frequency shift sensitivity of 6.8 MHz/kPa. Our allfabric sensor is more suitable for textile technology compared with traditional pressure sensors and exhibited wide potential applications in the field of intelligent fabric for electronic skin.

Designing suitable material systems to construct artificial synapses and exploring novel synaptic functions is a crucial step toward the realization of efficient large-scale bioinspired neuromorphic systems. In this work, flexible and insoluble bio-memristor devices are fabricated by precisely engineering the molecular structures of wool keratin. This flexible Ag/ keratin/indium tin oxide-polyethylene naphthalate synaptic device possesses enhanced mechanical resistance, which is achieved by photocross-linking keratin molecules, and can withstand a bending radius of up to 1.2 mm. This device is promising for implantable applications because it is water-resistant. When modulated by triangle-wave DC voltages and pulsed voltages, this flexible electronic device emulates typical memristor characteristics and synaptic functions, including potentiation/depression, spike timing dependent plasticity, and long-term/short-term plasticity. Simulation results indicate that a memristor network made by this woolkeratin based device has ≈95.8% memory learning accuracy and capability for pattern learning. Combined, these features prove that the cross-linked wool-keratin based device has potential in wearable and flexible neuron computing systems.

The development of a flexible and efficient strategy to precisely fabricate polymer patterns is increasingly significant for many research areas, especially for cell biology, pharmaceutical science, tissue engineering, soft photonics, and bioelectronics. Recent advances of patterning natural polymers using various nanofabrication techniques, including photolithography, electron‐beam lithography, dip‐pen nanolithography, inkjet printing, soft lithography, and nanoimprint lithography are discussed here. Integrating nanofabrication techniques with naturally derived macromolecules provides a feasible route for transforming these polymer materials into versatile and sophisticated devices while maintaining their intrinsic and excellent properties. Furthermore, the corresponding applications of these natural polymer patterns generated by the above techniques are elaborated. In the end, a summary of this promising research field is offered and an outlook for the future is given. It is expected that advances in precise spatial patterns of natural polymers would provide new avenues for various applications, such as tissue engineering, flexible electronics, biomedical diagnosis, and soft photonics.

Wool keratin (WK) consists of a large number of α‐helices, which are just like many molecular‐scale springs. Herein, the construction of 3D WK molecular spring networks are reported by cross‐linking individual WK molecules via a Michael addition reaction. The as‐prepared springs display a superior recovery capability with unusual nonlinear elasticity, very low dissipative energy, and turntable elastic constant achieved by adjusting the chemical crosslinking density of WK networks. Owing to these unique characteristics, the 3D WK networks based flexible strain sensors reveal a high sensitivity, broad sensing ranges, and extremely long and stable performance. While normal highly sensible strain sensors, obtained by highly sophisticated surface or bulk patterning, often exhibit a relatively narrow range of measurements and limited life cycles. Such the WK mediated sensing materials have widespread applications in wearable electronics, such as detection and tracking of different human motions, and even discern voice during speaking.