Interface-Controlled Conductive Fibers for Wearable Strain Sensors and Stretchable Conducting Wires

Abstract

As an important subfield of flexible electronics, conductive fibers have been an active area of research. The interfacial interaction between nanostructured conductive materials with elastic substrates plays a vital role in the electromechanical performance of conductive fibers. However, the underlying mechanism has seldom been investigated. Here, we propose a fabricating strategy for a silver nanowire (Ag NW)/polyurethane composite fiber with a sheath-core architecture. The interfacial bonding layer is regulated, and its influence on the performance of conductive fibers is investigated, based on which an interfacial interaction model is proposed. The model underlines the significance of the embedding depth of the Ag NW network. Both supersensitive (gauge factor up to 9557) and ultrastable (negligible conductance degradation below the strain of 150%) conductive fibers are obtained via interface regulating, exhibiting great potential in the applications of wearable sensors and stretchable conducting connections.

Recent Advances in 1D Stretchable Electrodes and Devices for Textile and Wearable Electronics: Materials, Fabrications, and Applications

“…The outstanding conductivities realized by Lu et al are the consequence of a uniformly dispersed AgNWs network, resulting from the improved dispersibility of the AgNWs after coating with a polyethylene Glycol (PEG) derivative (Figure b–d). Sun and co‐workers also used a AgNWs/PU composite yarn with sheath‐core architecture . In this work the authors were able to obtain yarns with initial resistance lower than 1 Ω cm −1 .…”

“…f,g) Photograph and SEM images of the fabricated AgNWs/PU stretchable conductive fiber, respectively. (e–g) Reproduced with permission . Copyright 2018, American Chemical Society.…”

“…According to the 3D percolation theory which can explain the electrical behavior of conductive composites under tensile strains, the use of high‐aspect‐ratio materials such as CNTs and NWs as a conductive material for conductive composite can improve the stretchability of the conductive composites. Cao et al fabricated presented a 1D strain sensor using AgNWs and a PU composite with a core‐sheath structure (Figure c,d) . The 1D strain sensor was fabricated by coating the AgNWs/PU composite on the surface of an elastomeric core wire, providing an initial electrical resistance less than 1 Ω cm −1 .…”

Fiber/Fabric‐Based Piezoelectric and Triboelectric Nanogenerators for Flexible/Stretchable and Wearable Electronics and Artificial Intelligence

“…There are mainly four types of compounding structures between conductive materials and other functional materials, i.e., inner embedding (I), outer covering (II), homogenous blending (III), and spiral cladding (IV). a) Reproduced with permission . Copyright 2018, American Chemical Society.…”

Interfacial Phenomena of Advanced Composite Materials toward Wearable Platforms for Biological and Environmental Monitoring Sensors, Armor, and Soft Robotics

“…Although, more work needs to be done in order to fully understand the impact that the liquid metal/polymer interface has on the performance of wearable composites. Additionally, it is recognized that in order for liquid metal/polymer composites to be used all of the electronic components involved in the use of these type devices must also be developed as seen in works by Cao et al, Hu et al, Lima et al However, a complete summary of these works is out of the scope of this review.…”