ORIGINAL RESEARCH Plasma activation toward multi-stimuli responsive cotton fabric via in situ development of polyaniline derivatives and silver nanoparticles H. Ahmed . Tawfik A. Khattab . H. M. Mashaly . A. A. El-Halwagy . Mohamed Rehan Received: 7 November 2019 / Accepted: 2 January 2020 Ó Springer Nature B.V. 2020 Abstract Cotton fabrics have been known as one of the most common fibers due to its high absorption ability to chemicals, cheapness and high strength. The functionalization of natural fabrics with conductive polymers can produce conductive surfaces of high- performance textile with multifunctional properties. In the current work, conductive natural high-perfor- mance fabric was prepared by plasma assisted coating of cotton fabrics with different conductive polymers in presence or absence of silver nanoparticles. Nanos- tructured thin layer of polyaniline derivative was prepared in situ after plasma activation technique. Silver nanoparticles were deposited from silver nitrate solution by taking advantage of reduction capability of the conductive polymers. By changing the type of conductive polymer and the incorporation of silver nanoparticles, high-performance fabrics with altered or improved multifunctional properties were obtained including antibacterial, electrical conductivity, thermochromism, acid sensitivity and responsiveness to metal ions for a variety of potential purposes, such as biomedical, geo-textile and antistatic applications. Keywords Poly (p-nitroaniline) Á Silver nanoparticles Á Plasma Á Multi-stimuli responsive Á Cotton fabric Introduction Intelligent textiles based sensors can monitor and interact with environmental conditions, such as acid/ base conditions, magnetic and electric fields, temper- ature, solvent polarity, light, pressure as well as detection of pathogens, diseases and toxic chemical agents (Avila and Hinestroza 2008; Cherenack et al. 2010; Di et al. 2016; Khattab et al. 2018a, b, 2019a, b; Mondal 2008; Rehan et al. 2018a, b, 2019b; Sheng et al. 2018; Van der Velden et al. 2015). This occurs by manual operation or in a preprogrammed mode via responding to such conditions in different forms, such as light up in a certain pattern, naked-eye color change, or even acts as displays to present pictures and video. Furthermore, smart sensor fabrics can function as wearable devices to release substances able to regulate the temperature of human body, monitor muscular vibrations during sport activities, and even liberate a certain medicine onto skin (Abdelrahman H. Ahmed (&) Á T. A. Khattab Á H. M. Mashaly Á A. A. El-Halwagy Textile Industries Research Division, Dyeing, Printing and Auxiliaries Department, National Research Centre, 33 El-Buhouth Street, Dokki, Cairo 12622, Egypt e-mail: hend_plasma@yahoo.com M. Rehan (&) Textile Industries Research Division, Pretreatment and Finishing of Cellulosic-Based Fibers Department, National Research Centre, 33 El-Buhouth Street, Dokki, Cairo 12622, Egypt e-mail: rehan_nrc@yahoo.com 123 Cellulose https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-020-02980-7