Key Laboratory of Organic Optoelectronics and Molecular Engineering of the Ministry of Education, Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, P. R. China.
Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 1TN, UK.
Adv Mater. 2020 Mar;32(11):e1908214. doi: 10.1002/adma.201908214. Epub 2020 Feb 3.
Recently, electronic skin and smart textiles have attracted considerable attention. Flexible sensors, as a kind of indispensable components of flexible electronics, have been extensively studied. However, wearable airflow sensors capable of monitoring the environment airflow in real time are rarely reported. Herein, by mimicking the spider's fluff, an ultrasensitive and flexible all-textile airflow sensor based on fabric with in situ grown carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is developed. The fabric decorated with fluffy-like CNTs possesses exceptionally large contact area, endowing the airflow sensor with superior properties including ultralow detection limit (≈0.05 m s ), multiangle airflow differential response (0°-90°), and fast response time (≈1.3 s). Besides, the fluffy fabric airflow sensor can be combined with a pristine fabric airflow sensor to realize highly sensitive detection in a wide airflow range (0.05-7.0 m s ). Its potential applications including transmitting information according to Morse code by blowing the sensors, monitoring increasing and decreasing airflow velocity, and alerting blind people walking outside about potential hazard induced by nearby fast-moving objects are demonstrated. Furthermore, the airflow sensor can be directly integrated into clothing as stylish designs without sacrificing comfortness. It is believed that the ultrasensitive all-textile airflow sensor holds great promise for applications in smart textiles and wearable electronics.
最近，电子皮肤和智能纺织品引起了相当大的关注。作为柔性电子不可或缺的组成部分之一，柔性传感器得到了广泛的研究。然而，能够实时监测环境气流的可穿戴气流传感器却很少有报道。在此，通过模仿蜘蛛的绒毛，开发了一种基于原位生长碳纳米管（CNT）的织物的超灵敏、灵活的全纺织气流传感器。这种装饰有绒毛状 CNT 的织物具有极大的接触面积，使气流传感器具有卓越的性能，包括超低检测限（≈0.05 m s ）、多角度气流差分响应（0°-90°）和快速响应时间（≈1.3 s）。此外，这种蓬松织物气流传感器可以与原始织物气流传感器结合使用，在较宽的气流范围内（0.05-7.0 m s ）实现高灵敏度检测。它的潜在应用包括根据莫尔斯电码通过吹气传感器传输信息、监测气流速度的增减以及提醒户外盲人注意附近快速移动物体带来的潜在危险。此外，气流传感器可以直接集成到服装中，而不会牺牲舒适度，作为时尚设计。相信这种超灵敏的全纺织气流传感器在智能纺织品和可穿戴电子产品中有很大的应用前景。
