Vapor coating methods allow for rough and/or fragile substrates to be nondestructively coated with a variety of polymer films. To date, various off-the-shelf garments, commercial textiles, threads/yarns, plant leaves, flower petals, porous membranes, and micropatterned Si/SiO2 substrates have been conformally coated with either electronic-polymer or polyacrylate films. Selected technologies created using vapor-coated fibers, textile and plant matter will be described, including touch-sensitive textiles for interactive electronics; smart elbow braces for movement sensing; textile triboelectric generators that convert small body motions into stored energy; wear-, wash- and ironing-resistant conductive cloths that generate heat with a small applied voltage; thread/yarn supercapacitors that can be sewed or knitted into garments for wearable and portable energy storage; and flexible electrodes for bioimpedance spectroscopy.
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