Issue 32, 2022

High-performance pressure/strain sensors featuring a conductive network constructed from c-MWCNTs and nanospheres for human activity monitoring

Abstract

Human activity monitoring is a complex endeavor, which mainly depends on pressure or strain sensors. Therefore, the development of pressure/strain sensing composites is very valuable work. We prepared a composite to construct high-performance pressure/strain sensors for human activity monitoring. Benefiting from the excellent compression and tensile properties of thermoplastic polyurethane electrospun membrane (TPUEM), carboxylated multiwalled carbon nanotubes (c-MWCNTs) and poly(styrene-methacrylic acid)@polypyrrole nanospheres (PPNs) were anchored on the surface of TPU electrospun fibers by ultrasonication to form a dense multilayer conductive structure. The obtained composite (PPNs/c-MWCNTs/TPUEM) was assembled into a pressure sensor, with sensitivity as high as 14.16 kPa−1 in the pressure range of 8.18–27.68 kPa, a sensing time of 223 ms, and good reliability (1800 cycles). Moreover, PPNs/c-MWCNT/TPUEM coated with low concentration PDMS also shows good tensile sensing and hydrophobicity. The tensile range of the assembled strain sensor is ∼100.0% and the gauge factor (GF) reaches 2.03. The contact angle (CA) of PDMS/PPNs/c-MWCNTs/TPUEM is near 138.6°. Owing to these properties, PPNs/c-MWCNT/TPUEM can monitor pressure/strain deformations caused by human movements and physiological activities, showing wide applications in the field of intelligent wearables.

Graphical abstract: High-performance pressure/strain sensors featuring a conductive network constructed from c-MWCNTs and nanospheres for human activity monitoring

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
30 Apr 2022
Accepted
17 Jul 2022
First published
21 Jul 2022

J. Mater. Chem. C, 2022,10, 11755-11766

High-performance pressure/strain sensors featuring a conductive network constructed from c-MWCNTs and nanospheres for human activity monitoring

H. Cheng, C. Yang, N. Zhang, Y. Yin and C. Wang, J. Mater. Chem. C, 2022, 10, 11755 DOI: 10.1039/D2TC01797K

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