Highly Sensitive Fabric Sensors Based on Scale-like Wool Fiber for Multifunctional Health Monitoring.

Abstract

Highly sensitive, multifunctional, and comfortable fabric sensors with splendid electrical properties for precise detection of human physiological health parameters have attractive prospects in next-generation wearable flexible devices. However, it remains a non-ignorable challenge to construct a multifunctional fabric sensor to meet the requirements of compact structure, high sensitivity, fast response, excellent stability, and air permeability. Here, a wool felt@MXene fabric sensor (WF@MFS) prepared by felting large quantities of wool coated with MXene is reported for measuring multiple physiological parameters in a noninvasive manner. With the high conductivity and outstanding mechanical properties of MXene and the special scale-like surface structure of the wool fiber, the sensor exhibits remarkable sensing performance such as high pressure sensitivity (80.79 kPa-1), fast response (40 ms), low detection limit (12 Pa), and strong stability (>12,500 cycles). Furthermore, to avoid direct contact between MXene and the human body, the WF@MFS is encapsulated in pure wool without MXene, thereby enabling the fabricated sensor to be tightly integrated into a variety of clothing for monitoring different physiological signals and information about human activities. More importantly, we develop an intelligent cushion with a square and panda pattern and an intelligent neckerchief in the form of arrays based on the WF@MFS, which can intuitively observe the real-time force distribution of the thigh and cervical spine by means of machine learning when a human body sits in different postures. The sensor proposed in this work demonstrates the great ability to prevent cardiovascular disease and the related diseases caused by improper sitting postures in advance, paving a promising path for future wearable smart fabric electronics.