Tailorable Capacitive Tactile Sensor Based on Stretchable and Dissolvable Porous Silver Nanowire/Polyvinyl Alcohol Nanocomposite Hydrogel for Wearable Human Motion Detection. Issue 20 (16th September 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wang, Peng; Li, Guoxian; Liu, Jun; Hou, Zhanrui; Meng, Chuizhou; Guo, Shijie; Liu, Changhong; Fan, Shoushan
• Is Part Of: Advanced materials interfaces. Volume 8:Issue 20(2021)
• Page Start: n/a
• Page End: n/a
• Publication Date: 2021-09-16
• Subjects: hydrogel‐based sensors -- nanocomposite dielectrics -- polyvinyl alcohol hydrogels -- silver nanowires -- stretchable sensors -- tactile sensors; Materials science -- Periodicals; 620.11
• DOI: 10.1002/admi.202100998
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2196-7350

Abstract

Abstract: Recently, advanced flexible tactile sensors have been widely studied for human motion detection, which is an essential part of human healthcare monitoring. New types of materials with novel composition and structures play a significant role in sensing performance improvement. Herein, a stretchable and dissolvable porous silver nanowire (Ag NW)/polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) nanocomposite hydrogel is fabricated through a facile foaming and freezing‐thawing combined approach. The PVA gel is foamed with lots of tailorable micropores to achieve much enhanced stretchability and compressibility. Ag NWs are uniformly embedded inside PVA matrix to increase the permittivity upon introduction of numerous microcapacitors. Incorporated with carbon nanotube network electrodes, a capacitive tactile sensor is developed with high sensitivity (1.9 kPa −1 ), wide detection range (250 kPa), quick response time (25 ms), and remarkable stability over 10 000 loading/unloading cycles. Wearable sensing demonstration of detecting various human motions is performed. The hydrogel‐based sensor can be dissolved in hot water within minutes with recycling use of electrode material, which is environmentally friendly. A large‐area integrated sensor sheet can be made upon one fabrication process followed by cut into small sensor devices with desired shapes, indicating potential customized mass production. The proposed microporous nanocomposite hydrogel‐based sensor is promising in wearable sensing applications. Abstract : Porous silver nanowire/polyvinyl alcohol nanocomposite hydrogel is developed for flexible tactile sensors in wearable human motion detection. Synthetic strategies through both novel composition and structuration are used to achieve comprehensively enhanced sensing performance. The hydrogel‐based sensor can be quickly dissolved in hot water, and small sensors with desired shapes can be made by directly cutting from large‐area integrated sensor sheet.