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• Conductive superhydrophobic cotton fabric was fabricated by LBL assembly of CNTs. • The cotton fabric achieved high oil-water separation efficiency and great reusability. • The cotton fabric-based pressure sensor exhibited stable responses in human motion detection. • The pressure sensor could work even under wet and humid conditions. Conductive superhydrophobic cotton fabric was fabricated by assembling carboxylated and aminated multiwalled carbon nanotubes and modifying with polydimethylsiloxane. The cotton fabric possessed superhydrophobicity with a CA of 162°, and was successfully applied in oil-water separation with high separation efficiency and great reusability. Additionally, the conductive fabric-based pressure sensor exhibited stable and regular responses in human motion detection including finger bending, wrist movement, walking and running. Owing to the excellent water repellency of the fabric, the pressure sensor could work even under wet and humid conditions, which may pave a novel way to further broaden application field in high-performance electric sensors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the deteriorating environmental pollution by oil spill accidents and industrial sewage emissions, stimuli-responsive superwettable materials have been of considerable interest for its intriguing application in oil-water separation. Herein, we report a facile room temperature method to fabricate mussel-inspired cotton fabric with pH-responsive superwettability, by combining in situ generation of silver particles to construct roughness with self-assembly of long alkyl thiols terminated with methyl and carboxyl groups to endow hydrophobicity and responsiveness. The fabricated pH-responsive cotton fabric showed superhydrophobicity with water contact angle (WCA) up to 153° under acidic and neutral conditions while superhydrophilicity with WCA at 0° under alkaline condition. Importantly, the cotton fabric was successfully applied in bidirectional oil-water separation, exhibiting high separation efficiency and excellent reversibility. Furthermore, the pH-responsive cotton fabric also demonstrated superior self-cleaning property and antibacterial activity to E. coli and S. aureus. Our method to construct pH-responsive cotton fabric is simple, and no special techniques, chemicals or control of atmosphere is required. Our findings conceivably stand out as a new tool to fabricate functional superwettable materials and surfaces with responsiveness to external stimuli for various oil-pollution treatments and other potential applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]