High-Performance Wearable Strain Sensor Based on MXene@Cotton Fabric with Network Structure.

Lu Liu,Qianku Hu,Xuqing Liu,Libo Wang,Qixun Xia,Wenfeng Yuan,Mengmeng Yuan,Aiguo Zhou

doi:10.3390/nano11040889

Abstract

Flexible and comfortable wearable electronics are as a second skin for humans as they can collect the physiology of humans and show great application in health and fitness monitoring. MXene Ti3C2Tx have been used in flexible electronic devices for their unique properties such as high conductivity, excellent mechanical performance, flexibility, and good hydrophilicity, but less research has focused on MXene-based cotton fabric strain sensors. In this work, a high-performance wearable strain sensor composed of two-dimensional (2D) MXene d-Ti3C2Tx nanomaterials and cotton fabric is reported. Cotton fabrics were selected as substrate as they are comfortable textiles. As the active material in the sensor, MXene d-Ti3C2Tx exhibited an excellent conductivity and hydrophilicity and adhered well to the fabric fibers by electrostatic adsorption. The gauge factor of the MXene@cotton fabric strain sensor reached up to 4.11 within the strain range of 15%. Meanwhile, the sensor possessed high durability (>500 cycles) and a low strain detection limit of 0.3%. Finally, the encapsulated strain sensor was used to detect subtle or large body movements and exhibited a rapid response. This study shows that the MXene@cotton fabric strain sensor reported here have great potential for use in flexible, comfortable, and wearable devices for health monitoring and motion detection.

Highlights

Compared to traditional electronic devices, flexible electronic devices have good flexibility, ductility, and can be bent, twisted, or folded [1]
The thickness of the exfoliated MXene nanosheets was characterized by atomic force microscopy (AFM) (Figure 1d)
High-performance strain sensor based on cotton fabric and 2D

Summary

Introduction

Compared to traditional electronic devices, flexible electronic devices have good flexibility, ductility, and can be bent, twisted, or folded [1]. Flexible wearable electronic devices have attracted considerable attention due to their enormous potential applications in personal health monitoring, biomedical research, and artificial intelligence [6,7,8] Due to their simple structure and operating principles, superior sensing properties to various types of deformations, and good expansibility, resistance-type flexible stress/strain sensors have very broad application prospects in many fields [9,10]. Fabric-based flexible stress/strain sensors have obvious advantages in flexible electronic devices as they can withstand complicated deformations, such as bending, stretching, and twisting, and are made from simple and low-cost materials [18,19].

Preparation of MXene Ti3 C2 TX and Exfoliated d-Ti3 C2 TX Nanosheets

Characterization

Results and Discussions

Responses

Conclusions