Development of WS₂/MXene (Ti₃C₂T _x ) nanohybrid based multi-functional textronic sensor for non-invasive personal healthcare monitoring

Abstract

This report demonstrates the development of a WS2/Ti3C2TX nanohybrid-based multifunctional physical sensor (pressure, strain, and humidity) on a textile cloth. The fabricated sensor demonstrates excellent sensitivity and gauge factor of 3.66198 kPa-1, 3.17119, and 1.61787 towards pressure, strain, and humidity stimuli, respectively, with exceptional long-term stability showing an insignificant change in performance over ~4000 and ~4200 cycles. The underlying transduction mechanism for the fabricated piezoresistive multifunctional physical sensor is explained utilizing the intrinsic piezoresistive effect as well as the modulation of the Schottky barrier height exhibited by the WS2/Ti3C2Tx at the local heterojunctions with the help of detailed band structures that are realized by Ultraviolet Photoelectron Spectroscopy (UPS). A smartphone-based application was established to authenticate wireless incorporation of the fabricated multifunctional physical sensors to demonstrate applications such as Tetraplegic call detection, mood detection, and dry/wet skin monitoring system. The successful demonstration of connected healthcare applications using the WS2/Ti3C2Tx multifunctional sensor opens up new possibilities and applications in the fields of smart healthcare, e-textiles, and flexible electronics.

Research Progress and Application of Multimodal Flexible Sensors for Electronic Skin

“…The sensor demonstrates a pressure sensitivity of up to 14.1 kpa −1 and also exhibits exceptional sensing capabilities for variations in relative humidity. Adepu et al 84 developed a flexible sensor that operates in dual-modal, detecting both force and humidity. This sensor is based on hybrid membranes of WS 2 and MXene.…”

“…Therefore, multifunctional sensors that can simultaneously detect pressure/strain and humidity have also attracted people’s attention. Most functional nanomaterials such as MXene, − carbon nanomaterials, − etc., and some water-sensitive polymers such as hydrophilic polymers (polyacrylamide, poly­(vinyl alcohol), etc. ) − exhibit humidity sensitivity and can detect humidity using changes in resistance or capacitance caused by changes in humidity .…”

Improved Stability of Copper Nanowires with Solution-Grown NiO Shells as Protective Coating

“…Transparent electrodes have been widely used in various application fields, such as liquid crystal displays, touch screens, smart windows, solar cells, organic light-emitting diodes, alternating current electroluminescent devices, and supercapacitors. − In the meantime, flexible electronics have become an emerging potential technique, − and the issue of how to manufacture flexible transparent electrodes with both durability and high performance has attracted much attention from researchers and enterprises. Among various types of transparent electrodes, indium tin oxide (ITO) is the most widely used transparent electrode due to its high transmittance and good electrical conductivity .…”

MXene (Ti3C2T x )/TMD (ReSe2) nanohybrid-based flexible electromechanical sensors for cervical collar strain and shoulder load detection applications

“…Numerous research groups are investigating pristine MXene-based electromechanical sensors, with some works even employing mixed-dimensional heterostructures [44]. Also, there are only some reports on MXene nanohybridbased electromechanical sensors that have been utilized in several real-time applications [17,45,46]. Furthermore, combining ReSe 2 and Ti 3 C 2 T x to form a nanohybrid will further enhance the transport properties, resulting in improved electromechanical sensing performance, and there is a chance to fabricate the same to utilize it for real-time application.…”