Micro/nanofiber fabrication technologies for wearable sensors: a review

Abstract

The demand for wearable sensors is vastly growing as it provides people the ability to monitor their daily activities, surrounding environment, and health conditions conveniently. The development of these sophisticated wearable sensors with specific- or multiple-function capacity largely depends on the innovation pace of fabrication technologies. This review focuses on the most recent development of micro/nanofiber fabrication technologies for fabricating wearable sensors, including drawing, spinning, coating, and printing. The basic working mechanisms are introduced, followed by some representative applications. Lastly, the perspectives of these advanced methods on the development of future wearable sensors are discussed.

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“…Nanofibers have received particular attention for their many properties, including their large surface area, porosity, ease of manufacture, good chemical, physical and mechanical properties, flexibility, and possible control over morphology [4][5][6][7][8]. Up to now, there have been various nanofiber fabrication technologies, such as drawing [9,10], spinning [11], coating [12,13], printing [14,15], etc. Electrospinning is one of the most employed techniques in the current strategies for fabricating nanofibers [16][17][18][19].…”