School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanotechnology Research Center, State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Flexible Electronic Materials and Wearable Devices, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, P. R. China.
State Key Laboratory of Precision Measurement Technology and Instruments, Department of Precision Instrument, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, P. R. China.
Adv Mater. 2024 Nov;36(45):e2407859. doi: 10.1002/adma.202407859. Epub 2024 Sep 2.
Temperature and pulse waves are two fundamental indicators of body health. Specifically, thermoresistive flexible temperature sensors are one of the most applied sensors. However, they suffer from poor reproducibility of resistivity; and decoupling temperature from pressure/strain is still challenging. Besides, autonomous thermoregulation by wearable sensory systems is in high demand, but conventional commercial apparatuses are cumbersome and not suitable for long-term portable use. Here, a material-design strategy is developed to overcome the problem of poor reproducibility of resistivity by tuning the thermal expansion coefficient to nearly zero, precluding the detriment caused by shape expansion/shrinkage with temperature variation and achieving high reproducibility. The strategy also obtains more reliable sensitivity and higher stability, and the designed thermoresistive fiber has strain-insensitive sensing performance and fast response/recovery time. A smart textile woven by the thermoresistive fiber can decouple temperature and pulse without crosstalk; and a flexible wireless closed-loop system comprising the smart textile, a heating textile, a flexible diminutive control patch, and a smartphone is designed and constructed to monitor health status in real-time and autonomously regulate body temperature. This work offers a new route to circumvent temperature-sensitive effects for flexible sensors and new insights for personalized thermoregulation.
温度和脉搏波是身体两个基本的健康指标。具体来说,热敏电阻式柔性温度传感器是应用最广泛的传感器之一。然而,它们的电阻再现性较差;而且,将温度与压力/应变解耦仍然具有挑战性。此外,可穿戴式感测系统的自主温度调节需求很高,但传统的商业设备体积庞大,不适合长期便携使用。在这里,开发了一种材料设计策略,通过将热膨胀系数调谐至接近零来克服电阻再现性差的问题,从而避免因温度变化引起的形状膨胀/收缩而造成的损害,实现了高再现性。该策略还获得了更可靠的灵敏度和更高的稳定性,设计的热敏电阻纤维具有对应变不敏感的传感性能和快速的响应/恢复时间。由热敏电阻纤维编织而成的智能纺织品可以实现温度和脉搏的无串扰解耦;并设计和构建了一个由智能纺织品、加热纺织品、柔性微型控制贴片和智能手机组成的柔性无线闭环系统,以实时监测健康状况并自主调节体温。这项工作为柔性传感器规避温度敏感效应提供了一条新途径,为个性化温度调节提供了新的思路。