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New Frontiers of Flexible and Wearable Nanosensors

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A special issue of Nanomaterials (ISSN 2079-4991). This special issue belongs to the section "Nanoelectronics, Nanosensors and Devices".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 October 2022) | Viewed by 12907

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Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Qufu Wei

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Guest Editor

College of Textile Science and Engineering, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China
Interests: surface functionalization of textile material; nano-structural textile material; smart apparel material

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

There is a growing demand for flexible and soft electronic devices. In particular, stretchable, flexible, and wearable sensors are needed for several potential applications, including personalized health monitoring, human motion detection, human–machine interfaces, soft robotics, and so forth. Among them, taking advantage of the wide range of properties of nanomaterials, the design of flexible and wearable nanosensors has become a major research target. This Special Issue is expected to provide new insights into flexible/wearable nanosensor-based smart textiles, environmental detection, advanced energy, biomedical technologies, and novel smart systems and promote the rapid development of these highly interdisciplinary fields, including nanoscience, nanotechnology, chemistry, physics, biology, materials science, and device engineering.

This Special Issue of Nanomaterials on “New Frontiers of Flexible and Wearable Nanosensors” aims at collecting original research and review articles that highlight synthesis, modification, design, properties, and applications in various areas related to flexible and wearable nanosensors. We would like to invite scientists and engineers from diverse and multidisciplinary fields with different technological backgrounds to contribute their works to this Special Issue.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following topics:

Textile-based nanosensor and nanomaterial systems;
Flexible/wearable and implanted nanosensors;
Flexible inorganic or organic nanosensors;
Multifunctional triboelectric nanosensors;
Electrochemical flexible nanosensors;
Piezoresistive or capacitive nanosensors;
Self-powered flexible/wearable nanosensors.

Prof. Dr. Qufu Wei
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Nanomaterials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

flexible
wearable
nanomaterials
nanocomposites
nanosensors
multifunctional materials

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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16 pages, 4430 KiB

Open AccessArticle

High-Performance Flexible Piezoresistive Pressure Sensor Printed with 3D Microstructures

by Guohong Hu, Fengli Huang, Chengli Tang, Jinmei Gu, Zhiheng Yu and Yun Zhao

Nanomaterials 2022, 12(19), 3417; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/nano12193417 - 29 Sep 2022

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 1947

Abstract

Flexible pressure sensors have been widely used in health detection, robot sensing, and shape recognition. The micro-engineered design of the intermediate dielectric layer (IDL) has proven to be an effective way to optimize the performance of flexible pressure sensors. Nevertheless, the performance development of flexible pressure sensors is limited due to cost and process difficulty, prepared by inverted mold lithography. In this work, microstructured arrays printed by aerosol printing act as the IDL of the sensor. It is a facile way to prepare flexible pressure sensors with high performance, simplified processes, and reduced cost. Simultaneously, the effects of microstructure size, PDMS/MWCNTs film, microstructure height, and distance between the microstructures on the sensitivity and response time of the sensor are studied. When the microstructure size, height, and distance are 250 µm, 50 µm, and 400 µm, respectively, the sensor shows a sensitivity of 0.172 kPa⁻¹ with a response time of 98.2 ms and a relaxation time of 111.4 ms. Studies have proven that the microstructured dielectric layer printed by aerosol printing could replace the inverted mold technology. Additionally, applications of the designed sensor are tested, such as the finger pressing test, elbow bending test, and human squatting test, which show good performance. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Frontiers of Flexible and Wearable Nanosensors)

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11 pages, 6819 KiB

Open AccessArticle

PCN-224 Nanoparticle/Polyacrylonitrile Nanofiber Membrane for Light-Driven Bacterial Inactivation

by Xiaolin Nie, Shuanglin Wu, Tanveer Hussain and Qufu Wei

Nanomaterials 2021, 11(12), 3162; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/nano11123162 - 23 Nov 2021

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2818

Abstract

Increasing issues of pathogen drug resistance and spreading pose a serious threat to the ability to treat common infectious diseases, which encourages people to explore effective technology to meet the challenge. Photodynamic antibacterial inactivation (aPDI) is being explored for inactivating pathogens, which could be used as a novel approach to prevent this threat. Here, porphyrin-embedded MOF material (PCN-224) with photodynamic effect was synthesized, then the PCN-224 nanoparticles (NPs) were embedded into PAN nanofibers with an electrospinning process (PAN-PCN nanofiber membrane). On the one hand, polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers help to improve the stability of PCN-224 NPs, which could avoid their leakage. On the other, the PAN nanofibers are used as a support material to load bactericidal PCN-224 NPs, realizing recycling after bacterial elimination. An antibacterial photodynamic inactivation (aPDI) study demonstrated that the PAN-PCN 0.6% nanofiber membrane processed 3.00 log unit elimination towards a E. coli bacterial strain and 4.70 log unit towards a S. aureus strain under illumination. A mechanism study revealed that this efficient bacterial elimination was due to singlet oxygen (¹O₂). Although the materials are highly phototoxic, an MTT assay showed that the as fabricated nanofiber membranes had good biocompatibility in the dark, and the cell survival rates were all above 85%. Taken together, this work provided an application prospect of nanofibers with an aPDI effect to deal with the issues of pathogen drug resistance and spreading. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Frontiers of Flexible and Wearable Nanosensors)

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15 pages, 7531 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Highly Sensitive and Stretchable c-MWCNTs/PPy Embedded Multidirectional Strain Sensor Based on Double Elastic Fabric for Human Motion Detection

by Huiying Shen, Huizhen Ke, Jingdong Feng, Chenyu Jiang, Qufu Wei and Qingqing Wang

Nanomaterials 2021, 11(9), 2333; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/nano11092333 - 08 Sep 2021

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 2367

Abstract

Owing to the multi-dimensional complexity of human motions, traditional uniaxial strain sensors lack the accuracy in monitoring dynamic body motions working in different directions, thus multidirectional strain sensors with excellent electromechanical performance are urgently in need. Towards this goal, in this work, a stretchable biaxial strain sensor based on double elastic fabric (DEF) was developed by incorporating carboxylic multi-walled carbon nanotubes(c-MWCNTs) and polypyrrole (PPy) into fabric through simple, scalable soaking and adsorption-oxidizing methods. The fabricated DEF/c-MWCNTs/PPy strain sensor exhibited outstanding anisotropic strain sensing performance, including relatively high sensitivity with the maximum gauge factor (GF) of 5.2, good stretchability of over 80%, fast response time < 100 ms, favorable electromechanical stability, and durability for over 800 stretching–releasing cycles. Moreover, applications of DEF/c-MWCNTs/PPy strain sensor for wearable devices were also reported, which were used for detecting human subtle motions and dynamic large-scale motions. The unconventional applications of DEF/c-MWCNTs/PPy strain sensor were also demonstrated by monitoring complex multi-degrees-of-freedom synovial joint motions of human body, such as neck and shoulder movements, suggesting that such materials showed a great potential to be applied in wearable electronics and personal healthcare monitoring. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Frontiers of Flexible and Wearable Nanosensors)

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Review

Jump to: Research

18 pages, 7070 KiB

Open AccessReview

Manufacturing Technics for Fabric/Fiber-Based Triboelectric Nanogenerators: From Yarns to Micro-Nanofibers

by Chonghui Fan, Yuxin Zhang, Shiqin Liao, Min Zhao, Pengfei Lv and Qufu Wei

Nanomaterials 2022, 12(15), 2703; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/nano12152703 - 05 Aug 2022

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 3315

Abstract

Triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG), as a green energy harvesting technology, has aroused tremendous interest across many fields, such as wearable electronics, implanted electronic devices, and human-machine interfaces. Fabric and fiber-structured materials are excellent candidates for TENG materials due to their inherent flexibility, low cost, and high wearing comfort. Consequently, it is crucial to combine TENG with fabric/fiber materials to simultaneously leverage their mechanical energy harvesting and wearability advantages. In this review, the structure and fundamentals of TENG are briefly explained, followed by the introduction of three distinct methods for preparing fabric/fiber structures: spinning and weaving, wet spinning, and electrospinning. In the meantime, their applications have been discussed, focusing primarily on energy harvesting and wearable self-powered sensors. Finally, we discussed the future and challenges of fabric and fiber-based TENGs. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Frontiers of Flexible and Wearable Nanosensors)

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19 pages, 1292 KiB

Open AccessReview

Integration of Different Graphene Nanostructures with PDMS to Form Wearable Sensors

by Shan He, Yang Zhang, Jingrong Gao, Anindya Nag and Abdul Rahaman

Nanomaterials 2022, 12(6), 950; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/nano12060950 - 14 Mar 2022

Cited by 19 | Viewed by 5622

Abstract

This paper presents a substantial review of the fabrication and implementation of graphene-PDMS-based composites for wearable sensing applications. Graphene is a pivotal nanomaterial which is increasingly being used to develop multifunctional sensors due to their enhanced electrical, mechanical, and thermal characteristics. It has been able to generate devices with excellent performances in terms of sensitivity and longevity. Among the polymers, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) has been one of the most common ones that has been used in biomedical applications. Certain attributes, such as biocompatibility and the hydrophobic nature of PDMS, have led the researchers to conjugate it in graphene sensors as substrates or a polymer matrix. The use of these graphene/PDMS-based sensors for wearable sensing applications has been highlighted here. Different kinds of electrochemical and strain-sensing applications have been carried out to detect the physiological signals and parameters of the human body. These prototypes have been classified based on the physical nature of graphene used to formulate the sensors. Finally, the current challenges and future perspectives of these graphene/PDMS-based wearable sensors are explained in the final part of the paper. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Frontiers of Flexible and Wearable Nanosensors)

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