Highly-performance nonwoven pressure sensors with enhanced breathability and durability for human health monitoring

Abstract

In recent years, the rapid development of smart wearable devices has resulted in significant advances in flexible pressure sensors, which have found application in speech recognition, health monitoring, as well as motion tracking. There is, however, still a significant challenge associated with the low-cost preparation of flexible pressure sensors with high sensitivity and permeability. An innovative nonwoven-based flexible pressure sensor is presented in this paper consisting of a conductive sensing layer composed of reduced graphene oxide-treated polyester hydrophilic nonwoven, an electrode layer comprised of carbon nanotube-printed polyester plain nonwoven electrodes, and a top pressure layer composed of hydroentangled viscose dome structure nonwoven. The pressure sensor exhibits high sensitivity (5.43% kPa−1 in the range of 0–10.12 kPa), excellent permeability (807.2 mm s−1), rapid response and recovery time (73/73 ms), a wide sensing range (0–185 kPa), and remarkable cycling durability (∼20,000 cycles). The sensor exhibits superhydrophobic properties, as indicated by a water contact angle of up to 155°. Based on its commendable performance, the sensor demonstrates the capability to discern various pressure signals, enabling the potential for encrypted transmission of military information. Additionally, it proves valuable in applications such as health monitoring and motion tracking. Consequently, the flexible pressure sensor has significant potential for application in areas such as data encryption, health monitoring, and motion detection.