ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nanotechnol.
Sec. Biomedical Nanotechnology
Green Engineered MoS₂ Functionalized Non-Woven Fabric: Washable, Biocompatible, and Pressure Sensitive Smart Textile
Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, India
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Abstract
Smart textiles capable of reliable pressure sensing are essential for emerging wearable and biomedical applications; however, scalable fabrication routes that combine sensing performance, durability, and biological safety remain limited. This research presents a green engineered MoS2-functionalized non-woven fabric was developed as a flexible piezoresistive pressure sensor using a citric acid-assisted exfoliation and coating approach. Few-layer MoS2 nanosheets were uniformly coated on the fibrous substrate, forming a flexible conductive network without compromising fabric flexibility. The structural and surface studies confirm the successful intercalation of MoS2 with well-preserved layered structures. The fabricated textile shows a stable and repeatable electromechanical response in the applied pressure range of 600 - 6000 Pa, wherein resistance decreases monotonously while voltage output increases as load is exerted. The sensor exhibits good repeatability (±0.05 V), low hysteresis (0.07 V), stable signal (response and recovery), as well as sustained electrical function was obtained over multiple washing cycles, implying practical robustness. Furthermore, antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is demonstrated, and in vitro cytocompatibility tests indicate 79% cell viability at the highest tested concentration. These findings indicate that green engineered MoS2-coated non-woven fabrics represent a promising platform for pressure-responsive smart textiles, enabling their integration into wearable and bio-interfacing applications.
Summary
Keywords
Antibacterial studies, cytocompatibility, Green engineered, Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), Non-woven
Received
27 November 2025
Accepted
16 January 2026
Copyright
© 2026 Ramachandran and Nageswaran. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Sharmila Nageswaran
Disclaimer
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.