Flexible
nanofiber-based composites have been widely explored because
of their light weight, high surface area, scalability, and tunable
physical and mechanical properties. In this work, we report electrospun
2D-Bi2S3 incorporated PVDF/PPy nanofibers as
a versatile platform for ultrasensitive pressure, strain, and temperature
sensing. Detailed characterization studies revealed the formation
of ultrathin nanofibers and characteristic Raman and IR vibration
modes of PPy, 2D-Bi2S3, β-phased PVDF.
The fabricated pressure sensor exhibited a sensitivity of 1.51 kPa–1 in the wide linear range of 1–50 kPa and a
response time of 0.04 s. The practical ability of pressure sensor
was tested by successfully detecting pulse rate of human radial arteries.
Further, the BS- PVDF/PPy composite was employed as a strain sensor
in the range of 3.1–61.5%, displayed a gauge factor (GF) of
45.45 and a response time of 0.1 s. The wearable sensor was capable
of detecting minute changes in hand gestures by recognizing the microstrains
applied to the device. The sensing mechanism can be attributed to
the excellent piezoelectric property of β- phase PVDF, electron
transport property of PPy nanoparticles and tensile strength of the
BS nanoparticles embedded in the polymer matrix. When used as a wearable
temperature sensor, the versatile device demonstrated a linear range
of detection 24- 48 °C with a response time of 0.33 s and Temperature
coefficient of resistance (TCR) of −0.1117 °C–1 that can be attributed to the phonon-assisted hoping mechanism.
The nanofiber composite dissolved in volatile organic solvent acetone
in 5 days with the least impact on the surrounding environment thus
making this a promising strategy to develop transient technologies
aimed at zero-waste, green electronics.