Abstract
Flexible wearable pressure sensors can maintain their sensing capability when any deformation occurs, which possess ponderance in the realms of electronic skin, man–machine interaction, medical diagnosis, and human motion detection. Two-dimensional (2D) layered-structured materials of early transition metal carbides and carbonitrides, named MXenes, own fascinating character due to mechanical flexibility, good conductivity, excellent hydrophilic property, large specific surface areas, and unique surface chemistry. The excellent properties of MXenes can improve the sensing performance of flexible pressure sensors based on MXenes. MXenes can be obtained by diverse preparation methods and form composites with other materials conveniently. In particular, polymers are ideal choices for synthesizing MXenes composites due to their versatility, compatibility, and low cost. MXenes or MXenes/polymers display strengthened mechanical flexibility and tensile properties through the design of the structure and the manufacturing process, which makes them desirable for extensive use in the realm of wearable pressure sensors. In this review, we focus on preparation and compounding methods of MXenes and MXenes/polymers as well as recent progress of applications in wearable pressure sensors. Moreover, major challenges and further research are also presented.
Highlights
Extensive research studies have been done on sensors using multiple functional materials on flexible substrates, it is still a challenge to manufacture flexible sensors with high sensitivity and a large enough detection range to detect a wide range of human body motions.[17,18,19,20]
In the wake of manufacturing solutions burgeon, polymers with various functions can be introduced into MXenes to form advanced functional materials, which will further expand its applications in the field of flexible pressure sensors
The results show that the pressure sensor possesses a high value of sensitivity, short responsive time, and good cycle stability
Summary
Numerous studies have been carried out to explore wearable physical sensors, which is flexible enough to attach to human skin due to their potential utilization in human exercises, health status, diseases monitoring, and artificial intelligence interaction.[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14] Except flexibility, they should possess high stability, simplicity, tensile properties as well as the lower materials, and manufacturing costs and have excellent sensitivity to detect wide-ranging strain.[15,16] extensive research studies have been done on sensors using multiple functional materials on flexible substrates, it is still a challenge to manufacture flexible sensors with high sensitivity and a large enough detection range to detect a wide range of human body motions.[17,18,19,20] High sensitivity requires large structural deformation under small strain, while high flexibility requires structural interconnection networks even at a large strain.[21]. What deserves to be mentioned is that pressure sensors, which convert excitation signals into resistance changes, capacitance change, or stress variation, are widely used because of their simple readout mechanism, easy fabrication, high linearity, and low power dissipation.[27,28] The applications in wearable electronics products of traditional pressure sensors based on semiconductors and metal are restricted due to their rigidity, fragility, low sensitiveness, narrow sensing extent, limited stretching capacity, and low resolution, so it is difficult to implement them as wearable sensors.[29,30] the advanced wearable pressure sensor, which is an essential part of flexible and soft electronic devices, must have the following qualities: high sensitivity, elasticity, low-cost, and simplicity.[31] it is urgent to find advanced functional materials to prepare wearable pressure sensors. The challenges faced by these flexible wearable sensors and the potential opportunities to develop new applications in practical devices are discussed
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
