Mechanoluminescence (ML) is the light generation of a material under mechanical stimuli. For more than 400 years, many compounds including inorganic and organic materials present this phenomenon. The general mechanism for the ML emission is the stress‐induced electrification effect combined with the piezoelectric field that lead to trapping and detrapping of the charge carriers. However, an in‐depth investigation and research are required to understand and hypothesize the ML mechanisms and optimum design and synthesis methods for better ML properties. Among the most common materials possessing this phenomenon is the zinc sulfide (ZnS) compounds that show high luminescence intensity and reproducibility. Such properties make them best candidates to be used in potential applications such as light and display devices, stress sensors, and human health monitoring devices. Therefore, this minireview focuses on the recent development and progress in doped ZnS ML compounds, including mechanism, design and synthesis, and the practical applications of such materials.

No abstract

The ability to locate and quantify large strains will significantly improve the real‐world application scenario of flexible and stretchable strain sensors. However, current methods for implementing stretchable distributed strain sensing still face challenges such as complicated demodulation, multisensor crosstalk, and high power consumption. Herein, a self‐powered and stretchable optical fiber strain sensor is reported with distributed sensing capability based on mechanoluminescent optical fiber, where mechanoluminescent phosphors with different emission color light are discretely integrated onto the outer cladding of the elastomer optical fiber. Based on the wavelength coding technique and time‐domain filtering comparison method, the capability of strain magnitude quantification (10–60%) and strain location identification together in a single stretchable optical fiber is successfully realized, even at multiple positions simultaneously in the strain‐applied situation. Moreover, this stretchable optical fiber strain sensor shows insensitivity to bending, compression, and temperature disturbances and outstanding durability (>8000 cycles). Due to the excellent light confinement of the elastomer optical fiber, demonstrations such as bright‐field measurement, saline water operation, and wearable glove application exhibit its potential as a promising technology for future self‐powered distributed optical sensing systems.