Processing‐History‐Programmed Silk Fibers Integrating Mechanical Robustness, Ionic Conduction, and Optical Waveguiding for Intelligent Wearables

ABSTRACT Soft fibrous materials that integrate mechanical robustness with efficient electrical and optical signal transport are highly desirable for intelligent wearables, yet remain challenging due to the intrinsic trade‐off between structural reinforcement and functional transport. Here, inspired by natural silk spinning, we introduce a processing‐history programming strategy that exploits the controlled coupling of humidity, stretching, and dehydration to encode multifunctionality into silk‐based fibers without chemical modification. Through a humidity‐assisted stretching‐mediated spinning (SMS) pathway, hierarchical structural reconstruction is synchronously induced, featuring enhanced β‐sheet formation, increased axial orientation, and a radially graded architecture, which together lead to orders‐of‐magnitude improvements in strength, modulus, and toughness. Importantly, the mechanically reinforced fibers preserve continuous ionic transport pathways and exhibit stable electromechanical responses, while also functioning as visible‐light waveguides with optical transmission. By integrating multimodal electrical and optical signals with on‐device machine learning, the fibers enable real‐time decoding of human motion states and sweat electrolyte concentrations, establishing processing‐history programming as a general paradigm for designing multifunctional fibrous electronics and intelligent textiles.

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Publication Details

Journal
Advanced Functional Materials
Published
2026-05-29
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.76164
Primary Topic
Advanced Sensor and Energy Harvesting Materials
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Processing‐History‐Programmed Silk Fibers Integrating Mechanical Robustness, Ionic Conduction, and Optical Waveguiding for Intelligent Wearables

Zhiyong Yang, Chunping Ma, Ruoxuan Peng, Shengjie Ling et al.
Advanced Functional Materials
Advanced Sensor and Energy Harvesting Materials
article

Processing‐History‐Programmed Silk Fibers Integrating Mechanical Robustness, Ionic Conduction, and Optical Waveguiding for Intelligent Wearables

Zhiyong Yang, Chunping Ma, Ruoxuan Peng, Shengjie Ling, Jinpeng Mo, Jialing Chen, J W Ren, Zihan Lin, Yang Wang, Xingyue Ma, Wenli Gao, Longfei Fan, Weiqi Yang, Zhenguo Chi, Yunhao Yang, Chao Ye
article en

Abstract

ABSTRACT Soft fibrous materials that integrate mechanical robustness with efficient electrical and optical signal transport are highly desirable for intelligent wearables, yet remain challenging due to the intrinsic trade‐off between structural reinforcement and functional transport. Here, inspired by natural silk spinning, we introduce a processing‐history programming strategy that exploits the controlled coupling of humidity, stretching, and dehydration to encode multifunctionality into silk‐based fibers without chemical modification. Through a humidity‐assisted stretching‐mediated spinning (SMS) pathway, hierarchical structural reconstruction is synchronously induced, featuring enhanced β‐sheet formation, increased axial orientation, and a radially graded architecture, which together lead to orders‐of‐magnitude improvements in strength, modulus, and toughness. Importantly, the mechanically reinforced fibers preserve continuous ionic transport pathways and exhibit stable electromechanical responses, while also functioning as visible‐light waveguides with optical transmission. By integrating multimodal electrical and optical signals with on‐device machine learning, the fibers enable real‐time decoding of human motion states and sweat electrolyte concentrations, establishing processing‐history programming as a general paradigm for designing multifunctional fibrous electronics and intelligent textiles.

Advanced Functional Materials
Anhui Agricultural University (CN), Sun Yat-sen University (CN), Fudan University (CN), ShanghaiTech University (CN), Wuyi University (CN), Yancheng Institute of Technology (CN), Yancheng Vocational Institute of Industry Technology (CN), Wuyi University (CN)
National Natural Science Foundation of China, Foundation for Distinguished Young Talents in Higher Education of Guangdong, National Key Research and Development Program of China
Openalex Percentile: Top 10%
Advanced Sensor and Energy Harvesting Materials
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