A stretchable and conductive fiber for multifunctional sensing and energy harvesting. (June 2021) - Lan, Lingyi
Abstract: Fibers with high stretchability and conductivity are considered as essential building blocks for next-generation fiber-based electronics. Herein, we presented a facile, scalable, and environmentally-friendly approach for the fabrication of multifunctional fibers. The fiber obtained by wet-spinning technology is composed of MXene and carbon nanotube (CNT) embedded in polyurethane (PU), with a cobblestone-shaped gold nanostructure (namely, AuCNS) on its surface formed by spontaneous reduction between AuCl4 ¯ and MXene. The fiber exhibits high conductivity and excellent durability under mechanical deformations, which makes it promising for constructing wearable fiber-based devices. The formation of AuCNS significantly enhances the surface roughness and catalytic behavior of the fiber. An ultra-sensitive pressure sensor with high sensitivity, fast response time, and excellent durability was fabricated using the fiber as sensing units. Besides, a three-electrode fiber-based flexible electrochemical sensor for highly sensitive detection of H2 O2 can be designed due to the excellent electrocatalytic activity of AuCNS. The fiber can also be used as an electrode for constructing a fiber-based triboelectric nanogenerator for water energy harvesting. All these indicate that this multifunctional fiber would hold great promise in next-generation fiber-based wearable sensors as well as self-powered systems. Graphical Abstract: ga1 Highlights: A scalable and facile method for integrating conductive MXene and CNT into stretchable polymer fibers is proposed. A composite fiber with cobblestone-shaped gold nanostructures is obtained without any additional reagents or heating conditions. The composite fiber exhibits multiple sensing properties and can be fabricated into flexible electrochemical sensor as well as ultrasensitive pressure sensor. A fiber-shaped stretchable triboelectric nanogenerator is fabricated for harvesting raindrop energy from the environment.