Type
ArticleAuthors
Zhang, Yi-ZhouLee, Kanghyuck
Anjum, Dalaver H.
Sougrat, Rachid

Jiang, Qiu

Kim, Hyunho
Alshareef, Husam N.

KAUST Department
Electron MicroscopyFunctional Nanomaterials and Devices Research Group
Imaging and Characterization Core Lab
Material Science and Engineering Program
Physical Science and Engineering (PSE) Division
Date
2018-06-15Online Publication Date
2018-06-15Print Publication Date
2018-06Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/628444
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The development of wearable electronics, point-of-care testing, and soft robotics requires strain sensors that are highly sensitive, stretchable, capable of adhering conformably to arbitrary and complex surfaces, and preferably self-healable. Conductive hydrogels hold great promise as sensing materials for these applications. However, their sensitivities are generally low, and they suffer from signal hysteresis and fluctuation due to their viscoelastic property, which can compromise their sensing performance. We demonstrate that hydrogel composites incorporating MXene (TiCT) outperform all reported hydrogels for strain sensors. The obtained composite hydrogel [MXene-based hydrogel (M-hydrogel)] exhibits outstanding tensile strain sensitivity with a gauge factor (GF) of 25, which is 10 times higher than that of pristine hydrogel. Furthermore, the M-hydrogel exhibits remarkable stretchability of more than 3400%, an instantaneous self-healing ability, excellent conformability, and adhesiveness to various surfaces, including human skin. The M-hydrogel composite exhibits much higher sensitivity under compressive strains (GF of 80) than under tensile strains. We exploit this asymmetrical strain sensitivity coupled with viscous deformation (self-recoverable residual deformation) to add new dimensions to the sensing capability of hydrogels. Consequently, both the direction and speed of motions on the hydrogel surface can be detected conveniently. Based on this effect, M-hydrogel demonstrates superior sensing performance in advanced sensing applications. Thus, the traditionally disadvantageous viscoelastic property of hydrogels can be transformed into an advantage for sensing, which reveals prospects for hydrogel sensors.Citation
Zhang Y-Z, Lee KH, Anjum DH, Sougrat R, Jiang Q, et al. (2018) MXenes stretch hydrogel sensor performance to new limits. Science Advances 4: eaat0098. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aat0098.Sponsors
Research reported in this publication is supported by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST).Journal
Science AdvancesAdditional Links
http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/6/eaat0098ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1126/sciadv.aat0098
Scopus Count
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