Wearable, flexible, and even stretchable tactile sensors, such as various types of electronic skin, have attracted extensive attention, which can adapt to complex and irregular surfaces, maximize the matching of wearable devices, and conformally apply onto human organs. However, it is a great challenge to simultaneously achieve breathability, permeability, and comfortability for their development. Herein, mitigating the problem by miniaturizing and integrating the sensors is tried. Highly flexible and stretchable coaxial structure fiber‐shaped triboelectric nanogenerators (F‐TENGs) with a diameter of 0.63 mm are created by orderly depositing conductive material of silver nanowires/carbon nanotubes and encapsulated polydimethylsiloxane onto the stretchable spandex fiber. As a self‐powered multifunctional sensor, the resulting composite fiber can convert mechanical stimuli into electrical signals without affecting the normal human body. Moreover, the F‐TENGs can be easily integrated into traditional textiles to form tactile sensor arrays. Through the tactile sensor arrays, the real‐time tactile trajectory and pressure distribution can be precisely mapped. This work may provide a new method to fabricate fiber‐based pressure sensors with high sensitivity and stretchability, which have great application prospects in personal healthcare monitoring and human–machine interactions.
Fire disaster is one of the most common hazards that threaten public safety and social development: how to improve the fire escape and rescue capacity remains a huge challenge. Here, a 3D honeycomb‐structured woven fabric triboelectric nanogenerator (F‐TENG) based on a flame‐retardant wrapping yarn is developed. The wrapping yarn is fabricated through a continuous hollow spindle fancy twister technology, which is compatible with traditional textile production processes. The resulting 3D F‐TENG can be used in smart carpets as a self‐powered escape and rescue system that can precisely locate the survivor position and point out the escape route to timely assist victim search and rescuing. As interior decoration, the unique design of the honeycomb weaving structure endows the F‐TENG fabric with an excellent noise‐reduction ability. In addition, combining with its good machine washability, air permeability, flame‐retardency, durability, and repeatability features, the 3D F‐TENG may have great potential applications in fire rescue and wearable sensors as well as smart home decoration.
Human respiration is an indispensable physiological behavior of the body, which is an important indicator to evaluate health status, especially for sleep‐related diseases. A real‐time respiratory monitoring and sleep breathing detecting system with convenience, high sensitivity, simple fabrication, and wearing comfort still remains a challenge and urgently desirable. Here, a breathable, highly sensitive, and self‐powered electronic skin (e‐skin) based on a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) is reported for real‐time respiratory monitoring and obstructive sleep apnea‐hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) diagnosis. By using multilayer polyacrylonitrile and “polyamide 66” nanofibers as the contact pairs, and deposited gold as the electrodes, a contact‐separation type of TENG‐based all‐nanofiber e‐skin is developed. The e‐skin has a peak power density of 330 mW m−2, high pressure sensitivity of 0.217 kPa−1, excellent working stability, and good air permeability. Therefore, the e‐skin is simultaneously capable of energy autonomy and accurate real‐time subtle respiration monitoring. Meanwhile, a self‐powered diagnostic system for real‐time detection and severity evaluation of obstructive sleep apnea‐hypopnea syndrome are further developed to prevent the occurrence of OSAHS, delay its development, and improve sleep quality. This study hopes to pave a new and practical pathway for real‐time respiration monitoring and sleep breathing diseases clinical detection.
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