Robust Piezoelectric Biomolecular Membranes from Eggshell Protein for Wearable Sensors.

Abstract

Flexible and wearable devices are drawing increasing attention due to their promising applications in energy harvesting and sensing. However, the application of wearable devices still faces great challenges, such as flexibility, repeatability, and biodegradability. Biopiezoelectric materials have been regarded as favorable energy-harvesting sources due to their nontoxicity and biocompatibility. Here, a wearable and biodegradable sensor is proposed to monitor human activities. The proposed sensor is fabricated via a low-cost, facile, and scalable electrospinning technology from nanofibers composed of eggshell membranes mixed with polyethylene oxide. It is shown that the sensor exhibits excellent flexibility, outstanding degradability, and mechanical stability over 3000 cycles under periodic stimulation. The device displays multiple potential applications, including the recognition of different objects, human motion monitoring, and active voice recognition. Finally, it is shown that the composite nanofiber membrane has good degradability and breathability. With excellent sensing performance, environmental friendliness, and ease of processing, the eggshell membrane-based sensor could be a promising candidate for greener and more environmentally friendly devices for application in implantable and wearable electronics.