A strong and flexible electronic vessel for real-time monitoring of temperature, motions and flow

Abstract

Flexible and multifunctional sensors that continuously detect physical information are urgently required to fabricate wearable materials for health monitoring. This study describes the fabrication and performance of a strong and flexible vessel-like sensor. This electronic vessel consists of a self-supported braided cotton hose substrate, single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs)/ZnO@polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) function arrays and a flexible PVDF function fibrous membrane, and it possesses high mechanical property and accurate physical sensing. The rationally designed tubular structure facilities the detection of the applied temperature and strain and the frequency, pressure, and temperature of pulsed fluids. Therefore, the flexible electronic vessel holds promising potential for applications in wearable or implantable materials for the monitoring of health.

Flexible Multifunctional Sensors for Wearable and Robotic Applications

“…By using a controlled temperature and reaction time, high-aspect-ratio ZnO nanorods were grown vertically on the surface of a PDMS substrate as top and bottom electrodes. [64] Physical monitoring of blood parameters, namely blood temperature and input pressure and frequency of the pulsed fluids, is of interest in medical practice and sport, therefore a self-supporting vessel-like structure was developed to simulate electronic blood vessels, [67] as shown in Figure 5b. Under a static and dynamic pressure, the tactile sensor exhibited a high pressure sensitivity of −0.768 kPa −1 ; see Table 1.…”

“…When the back electrode was grounded, the contact voltage induced by the electrostatic effect depended on the electrostatic property of the object and the piezoelectric effect. [67] Copyright 2017, Royal Society of Chemistry. [75] Magneto-electric coupling composites possess both a magnetostrictive phase and piezoelectric phase, and their electric polarization can be controlled by the external magnetic field or electric field.…”

“…All pyroelectrics are piezoelectric materials, see Figure 2, thus they are naturally treated as ideal choice for simultaneously sensing both mechanical and thermal stimuli. Common piezoelectric and pyroelectric materials including zinc oxide (ZnO), [64][65][66] PVDF, [65,67,68] and PMN-PT [69] have been investigated for mechanothermal sensors. ZnO and PVDF have relatively low piezo-and pyrocoefficients (ZnO: d 33 ≈ 12.4 pC N −1 , p ≈ −9.4 µC m −2 K −1 ; PVDF: [38,44] Studies showed that incorporation of ZnO in PVDF matrix can significantly improve the piezoelectric and pyroelectric properties of PVDF.…”

“…[64] The electrodes acted as static motion and temperature sensing element for the multifunctional sensor. [64] Physical monitoring of blood parameters, namely blood temperature and input pressure and frequency of the pulsed fluids, is of interest in medical practice and sport, therefore a self-supporting vessel-like structure was developed to simulate electronic blood vessels, [67] as shown in Figure 5b. The structure consisted of a single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) electrode, a modified ZnO piezoresistive temperature sensing array, PVDF piezoelectric nanofibers as pressure-and bending-sensing elements and a silver electrode on braided cotton hose substrate.…”

“…Reproduced with permission. [67] Copyright 2017, Royal Society of Chemistry. c) Triple-mode flexible PVDF/RGO composite bioinspired e-skin sensor.…”