A high-toughness, tailorable, wearable multifunctional sensor based on multisynergistic fabric-hydrogel constructed via dual-function boric acid bridge

Abstract

Flexible wearable electronic devices have attracted immense interest in human rehabilitation and motion detection to their intrinsic characteristics. However, with the sticky feeling and low strength of universal hydrogels, the flexible sensor made it difficult to satisfy the requirements of comfort for the human body. Here is a novel alcohol polyvinyl-boric acid-polyaniline (PVA-BA-PANI/PBA) fabric-hydrogel multi-functional sensor inspired by the microstructure of natural tendon based on cotton fabric fibers as muscle fibers and PVA hydrogel as extracellular matrix. The dual-function “bridge” molecule BA played the role of hydrogel cross-linker and provided a stable protonated environment for PANI. The three-dimensional pore structure of hydrogels was modulated by adjusting the polymerization time and boric acid concentration. The tailorable fabric-hydrogel composite PBA showed excellent electrical conductivity (0.52 S/m), good mechanical properties (tensile strength of 6.42 MPa and toughness of 6.16 MJ m−3), high-temperature resistance coefficient (TCR of −1588.011 and −4.252% °C−1 in the temperature range of −20 − 0 °C and 0 − 50 °C, respectively) and repeatable stability. Synchronously, the resultant PBA sensors revealed superb thermosensitive performances for real-time and continuous temperature monitoring requirements, providing a promising route to develop wearable artificial intelligence in human rehabilitation and motion detection.