The flexible strain sensor is of significant importance in wearable electronics, since it can help monitor the physical signals from the human body. Among various strain sensors, the foam-shaped ones have received widespread attention owing to their light weight and gas permeability. However, the working range of these sensors is still not large enough, and the sensitivity needs to be further improved. In this work, we develop a high-performance foam-shaped strain sensor composed of Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene, multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), and thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU). MXene sheets are adsorbed on the surface of a composite foam of MWCNTs and TPU (referred to as TPU/MWCNTs foam), which is prefabricated by using a salt-templating method. The obtained TPU/ MWCNTs@MXene foam works effectively as a lightweight, easily processable, and sensitive strain sensor. The TPU/MWCNTs@MXene device can deliver a wide working strain range of ∼100% and an outstanding sensitivity as high as 363 simultaneously, superior to the state-of-the-art foam-shaped strain sensors. Moreover, the composite foam shows an excellent gas permeability and suitable elastic modulus close to those of skin, indicating its being highly comfortable as a wearable sensor. Owing to these advantages, the sensor works effectively in detecting both subtle and large human movements, such as joint motion, finger motion, and vocal cord vibration. In addition, the sensor can be used for gesture recognition, demonstrating its perspective in humanmachine interaction. Because of the high sensitivity, wide working range, gas permeability, and suitable modulus, our foam-shaped composite strain sensor may have great potential in the field of flexible and wearable electronics in the near future.
As an essential member of 2D materials, MXene (e.g., Ti3C2Tx) is highly preferred for energy storage owing to a high surface‐to‐volume ratio, shortened ion diffusion pathway, superior electronic conductivity, and neglectable volume change, which are beneficial for electrochemical kinetics. However, the low theoretical capacitance and restacking issues of MXene severely limit its practical application in lithium‐ion batteries (LIBs). Herein, a facile and controllable method is developed to engineer 2D nanosheets of negatively charged MXene and positively charged layered double hydroxides derived from ZIF‐67 polyhedrons into 3D hollow frameworks via electrostatic self‐assembling. After thermal annealing, transition metal oxides (TMOs)@MXene (CoO/Co2Mo3O8@MXene) hollow frameworks are obtained and used as anode materials for LIBs. CoO/Co2Mo3O8 nanosheets prevent MXene from aggregation and contribute remarkable lithium storage capacity, while MXene nanosheets provide a 3D conductive network and mechanical robustness to facilitate rapid charge transfer at the interface, and accommodate the volume expansion of the internal CoO/Co2Mo3O8. Such hollow frameworks present a high reversible capacity of 947.4 mAh g−1 at 0.1 A g−1, an impressive rate behavior with 435.8 mAh g−1 retained at 5 A g−1, and good stability over 1200 cycles (545 mAh g−1 at 2 A g−1).
Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), particularly molybdenum diselenides (MoSe2), have the merits of their unique two-dimensional (2D) layered structures, large interlayer spacing (∼0.64 nm), good electrical conductivities, and high theoretical capacities when applied in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) as anode materials. However, MoSe2 remains suffering from inferior stability as well as unsatisfactory rate capability because of the unavoidable volume expansion and sluggish charge transport during lithiation-delithiation cycles. Herein, we develop a simultaneous reduction-intercalation strategy to synthesize expanded MoSe2 (e-MoSe2) with an interlayer spacing of 0.98 nm and a rich 1T phase (53.7%) by rationally selecting the safe precursors of ethylenediamine (NH2C2H4NH2), selenium dioxide (SeO2), and sodium molybdate (Na2MoO4). It is noteworthy that NH2C2H4NH2 can effectively reduce SeO2 and MoO4 2– forming MoSe2 nanosheets; in the meantime, the generated ammonium (NH4 +) efficiently intercalates between MoSe2 layers, leading to charge transfer, thus stabilizing 1T phases. The obtained e-MoSe2 exhibits high capacities of 778.99 and 611.40 mAh g–1 at 0.2 and 1 C, respectively, together with excellent cycling stability (retaining >90% initial capacity at 0.2 C over 100 charge–discharge cycles). It is believed that the material design strategy proposed in this paper provides a favorable reference for the synthesis of other transition metal selenides with improved electrochemical performance for battery applications.
Ultra-thin NiCo LDH was synthesized as a nanozyme for sensitive colorimetric detection of H2O2 and its active site was identified.
Two distinct regions formed inside NCP cubes determine the position and anisotropic pathway of subsequent chemical etching.
Wearable strain sensors are emerging rapidly for their promising applications in human motion detection for diagnosis, healthcare, training instruction, and rehabilitation exercise assessment. However, it remains a bottleneck in gaining comfortable and breathable devices with the features of high sensitivity, linear response, and tunable detection range. Textiles possess fascinating advantages of good breathability, aesthetic property, tailorability, and excellent mechanical compliance to conformably attach to human body. As the meandering loops in a textile can be extended in different directions, it provides plenty of room for exploring ideal sensors by tuning a twisting structure with rationally selected yarn materials. Herein, textile sensors with twisting architecture are designed via a solution-based process by using a stable water-based conductive ink that is composed of polypyrrole/ polyvinyl alcohol nanoparticles with a mean diameter of 50 nm. Depending on the predesigned twisting models, the thus-fabricated textile sensors show adjustable performances, exhibiting a high sensitivity of 38.9 with good linearity and a broad detection range of 200%. Such sensors can be integrated into fabrics and conformably attached to skin for monitoring subtle (facial expressions, breathing, and speaking) and large (stretching, jumping, running and jogging, and sign language) human motions. As a proof-ofconcept application, by integrating with a wireless transmitter, the signals detected by our sensors during exercise (e.g., running) can be remotely received and displayed on a smartphone. It is believed that the integration of our textile sensors with selected twisting models into a cloth promises full-range motion detection for wearable electronics and human−machine interfaces.
Fiber‐based supercapacitors (FSCs) possess great potential as an ideal type of power source for future weaveable/wearable electronics and electronic‐textiles. The performance of FSCs is, without doubt, primarily determined by the properties of fibrous electrodes. Carbonaceous fibers, e.g., commercial carbon fibers, newly developed graphene fibers, and carbon nanotube fibers, are deemed as promising materials for weaveable/wearable supercapacitors owing to their exotic properties including high tensile strength and robustness, excellent electrical conductivity, good flexibility, and environmental stability. Nevertheless, bare carbonaceous fiber normally exhibits low capacitance originating from electric double‐layer capacitance, which remains unsatisfactory for efficiently powering wearable and portable devices. Numerous efforts have been devoted to tailoring fiber properties by hybridizing pseudocapacitive materials, and impressive progress has been achieved thus far. Herein, the microstructures of pristine carbonaceous fibers are introduced in detail, and the recent advances in rational nano/microstructure design of their hybrids, which provides the feasibility to achieve the synergistic interaction between conductive agents and pseudocapacitive nanomaterials but are normally overlooked, are comprehensively reviewed. Besides, the challenges in developing high‐performance fibrous electrodes are also elaborately discussed.
Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries as power supply systems possessing a theoretical energy density of as high as 2600 Wh kg−1 are considered promising alternatives toward the currently used lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). However, the insulation characteristic and huge volume change of sulfur, the generation of dissolvable lithium polysulfides (LiPSs) during charge/discharge, and the uncontrollable dendrite formation of Li metal anodes render Li-S batteries serious cycling issues with rapid capacity decay. To address these challenges, extensive efforts are devoted to designing cathode/anode hosts and/or modifying separators by incorporating functional materials with the features of improved conductivity, lithiophilic, physical/chemical capture ability toward LiPSs, and/or efficient catalytic conversion of LiPSs. Among all candidates, molybdenum-based (Mo-based) materials are highly preferred for their tunable crystal structure, adjustable composition, variable valence of Mo centers, and strong interactions with soluble LiPSs. Herein, the latest advances in design and application of Mo-based materials for Li-S batteries are comprehensively reviewed, covering molybdenum oxides, molybdenum dichalcogenides, molybdenum nitrides, molybdenum carbides, molybdenum phosphides, and molybdenum metal. In the end, the existing challenges in this research field are elaborately discussed.
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