A Washable, Permeable, and Ultrasensitive Sn-Based Textile Pressure Sensor for Health Monitoring

Abstract

Wearable pressure sensors have attracted significant consideration due to their wide use in healthcare, intelligent robotics, and electronic skin. In this article, a dielectric material composed of Sn-based nanofibers containing SnOx/SnCl2 ( <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${x} =$ </tex-math></inline-formula> 1 and 2) was proposed for the first time to enhance the performance of pressure sensors. Compared with most of the reported nanofiber-based film pressure sensors, our tissue-like nanocomposite sensors achieve optimized sensitivity and working range and are particularly suitable for wearable applications. In contrast to most current research, electrospun nanofiber mats were oxidized without further pyrolysis at 100 °C, 200 °C, and 300 °C. Especially after annealing at 200 °C, the assembled tissue-like pressure sensor presents remarkable performance with a working range of up to 50 kPa and a sensor sensitivity of 11.6 kPa−1 (0–1 kPa). In addition, this sensor exhibits excellent cycling stability, permeability, and washability. Therefore, polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP)/SnCl2 tissue-like nanocomposite sensors can be utilized in a wide variety of flexible and wearable electronic device applications in the future.