Zhang Juan, Wang Yanen, Wei Qinghua, Wang Yanmei, Li Mingyang, Li Dinghao, Zhang Longyu
Industry Engineering Department, School of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China; Institute of Medical Research, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China.
Industry Engineering Department, School of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China; Institute of Medical Research, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China.
Int J Biol Macromol. 2022 Oct 31;219:1216-1226. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2022.08.175. Epub 2022 Sep 1.
Self-healing hydrogels have great application potential in the field of bio-sensors due to their self-healing, flexibility and excellent tensile properties. However, most hydrogel-based sensors are processed by template method, which is unable to fabricate complex three-dimensional (3D) structures, and limits the development of hydrogel-based sensor devices. A simple yet efficient one-pot method was proposed to fabricate polyvinyl alcohol/sodium tetraborate/sodium alginate hydrogel inks (SPB), also a fabricating process of self-healing hydrogel based on 3D printing technology has been proposed. The SPB hydrogel rapidly healed (<30 s) at room temperature, while its mechanical properties and conductivity also recovered quickly after healing. Besides, it could be used as wearable strain sensors, whose high stretchability (>2800 % strain) and sensitivity (gauge factor: 18.56 at 2000 % strain) could not only detect very large stretch deformations, but also detect the tiny pressure changes in the human body, such as finger flexion, knee flexion, and respiration. This study provides a method for the rapid fabrication of complex-structured hydrogel-based sensors, which is helpful for the hydrogel-based sensor applications in human motion detection and wearable devices.
自愈合水凝胶因其自愈合性、柔韧性和出色的拉伸性能，在生物传感器领域具有巨大的应用潜力。然而，大多数基于水凝胶的传感器是通过模板法加工的，这种方法无法制造复杂的三维（3D）结构，限制了基于水凝胶的传感器设备的发展。本文提出了一种简单而有效的一锅法来制备聚乙烯醇/硼酸钠/海藻酸钠水凝胶墨水（SPB），同时还提出了一种基于3D打印技术的自愈合水凝胶的制造工艺。SPB水凝胶在室温下能快速愈合（<30秒），愈合后其机械性能和导电性也能迅速恢复。此外，它还可以用作可穿戴应变传感器，其高拉伸性（>2800%应变）和灵敏度（应变系数：在2000%应变时为18.56）不仅可以检测非常大的拉伸变形，还可以检测人体中的微小压力变化，如手指弯曲、膝盖弯曲和呼吸。本研究为快速制造复杂结构的基于水凝胶的传感器提供了一种方法，有助于基于水凝胶的传感器在人体运动检测和可穿戴设备中的应用。
