Herein, this study reports the development of a multifunctional conductive antibacterial cotton fabric through the utilization of the natural polyphenol-mediated silver mirror reaction. The experimental results demonstrate that polyphenols can effectively facilitate the deposition of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), resulting in a uniform and durable hybrid nanocoating on the cotton fabric. The effects of polyphenol’s molecular weights on the coating structures and stabilities have been revealed via two distinct approaches: washing resistance and electrochemical testing systems. It has been concluded that lower-molecular-weight phenols induce a compact and dense coating structure, whereas polyphenols such as tannic acid exhibit relatively high stability, achieving an excellent conductivity of 0.2 S/cm and a good washing resistance of 67% over five cycles. The underlying mechanism has been further confirmed by the cyclic voltammetry measurements, suggesting that polyphenols play a significant role in stabilizing AgNPs and preventing their dissolution. Furthermore, the Ag-doped polyphenol-coated fabrics exhibit notable antibacterial properties. By coupling natural polyphenols with typical silver mirror reactions, this study not only offers a sustainable alternative to synthetic chemicals but also presents a promising method to endow cotton textiles with the dual properties of conductivity and antibacterial activity.

Fabricating polymeric films with ordered surface microarrays is of great significance for wearable sensing applications, yet it remains challenging to achieve scalable, cost-effective, and biocompatible architectures. Herein, we report a fabric-templated co-deposition strategy to construct nanofiber-reinforced composite films with well-ordered surface arrays. The approach utilizes woven cotton fabrics as soft templates, where capillary action directs the deposition of chitosan/poly (vinyl alcohol-co-ethylene) nanofiber mixtures within the microscale grooves, enabling direct replication of the array patterns after solvent evaporation and alkaline crosslinking. The resulting films exhibit hierarchical microstructures with uniform nanofiber distribution, strong hydrogen-bonding interactions, and tunable surface topographies. The optimized composite (Chit/NF_1.5) achieves well-defined ordered surface arrays, enhanced mechanical flexibility, and stable structural integrity. After surface metallization, the array-patterned films demonstrate a piezoresistive sensing performance, with a 2.6-fold enhancement in current variation and a 3.4-fold higher sensitivity particularly in a low-stress region (0–0.15 N) compared to flat films. A dual-mechanism response involving contact-area enlargement at large strains and nanofiber-mediated conductive pathway formation at small strains is proposed to explain the ultrasensitivity. This work provides a versatile and scalable route for engineering ordered surface architectures, holding great promise for wearable health monitoring, smart electronics, and biomedical devices.