Multifunctional Smart Textronics with Blow‐Spun Nonwoven Fabrics

Abstract

Here, the fabrication of nonwoven fabric by blow spinning and its application to smart textronics are demonstrated. The blow-spinning system is composed of two parallel concentric fluid streams: i) a polymer dissolved in a volatile solvent and ii) compressed air flowing around the polymer solution. During the jetting process with pressurized air, the solvent evaporates, which results in the deposition of nanofibers in the direction of gas flow. Poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVdF-HFP) dissolved in acetone is blowspun onto target substrate. Conductive nonwoven fabric is also fabricated from a blend of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and PVdF-HFP. An all-fabric capacitive strain sensor is fabricated by vertically stacking the PVdF-HFP dielectric fabric and the SWCNT/PVdF-HFP conductive fabric. The resulting sensor shows a high gauge factor of over 130 and excellent mechanical durability. The hierarchical morphology of nanofibers enables the development of superhydrophobic fabric and their electrical and thermal conductivities facilitate the application to a wearable heater and a flexible heat-dissipation sheet, respectively. Finally, the conductive nonwoven fabric is successfully applied to the detection of various biosignals. The demonstrated facile and cost-effective fabrication of nonwoven fabric by the blow-spinning technique provides numerous possibilities for further development of technologies ranging from wearable electronics to textronics.

Multifunctional Ultrastretchable Printed Soft Electronic Devices for Wearable Applications

“…The resistance of the MWE 38 wt%-H (3) does not change significantly, and the heating performance is basically stable, exhibiting excellent air stability (Figure 6f). As shown in Figure 6g,h, the MWE 38 (Figure 6i and Figure S12, Supporting Information). As shown in Figure 6g,h, the MWE 38 (Figure 6i and Figure S12, Supporting Information).…”

Highly Sensitive Textile-Based Capacitive Pressure Sensors Using PVDF-HFP/Ionic Liquid Composite Films

“…Figure 5 a shows the response characteristics of PVDF-HFP/IL textile pressure sensor (PVDF-HFP:IL ratio = 6.5:3.5). Under the loading condition, the extracted response time was −0.8 s, and under the unloading condition, the response time was −0.5 s. The response rate of our sensor was relatively slow compared to previous IL-based pressure sensors or fabric-based pressure sensors (0.1–0.3 s) [ 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 ]. The relatively slow response characteristics were due to the viscoelastic property of the PVDF-HFP/IL film and the complicated weaving structure of the multifilament fiber electrodes on the fabric sheet [ 36 , 46 , 47 , 48 ].…”

Self-Healable Hydrogel–Liquid Metal Composite Platform Enabled by a 3D Printed Stamp for a Multimodular Sensor System

“…To examine whether the moisture protectant affected skin impedancewhich is an important parameter for the biosignal measurements performed subsequently in this study (depicted in Figure )skin impedance was measured using hydrogel–liquid metal composite electrodes with and without moisture protection (Figure d). At frequencies above 1 kHz, both the electrode with moisture protection and that without moisture protection had similar impedance values that were lower than 10 kΩ, which are suitable for biosensing applications. , …”