Bioinspired Multifunctional Photonic-Electronic Smart Skin for Ultrasensitive Health Monitoring, for Visual and Self-Powered Sensing

Smart skin is highly desired to be ultrasensitive and self-powered as the medium of artificial intelligence. Here, an ultrasensitive self-powered mechanoluminescence smart skin (SPMSS) inspired by the luminescence mechanism of cephalopod skin and the ultrasensitive response of spider-slit-organ is developed. Benefitting from the unique strain-dependent microcrack structure design based on Ti3C2Tx (MXene)/carbon nanotube synergistic interaction, SPMSS possesses excellent strain sensing performances including ultralow detection limit (0.001% strain), ultrahigh sensitivity (gauge factor, GF = 3.92 x 10(7)), ultrafast response time (5 ms), and superior durability and stability (>45 000 cycles). Synchronously, SPMSS exhibits tunable and highly sensitive mechanoluminescence (ML) features under stretching. A relationship between ML features, strain sensing performances, and the deformation has been established successfully. Importantly, the SPMSS demonstrates excellent properties as triboelectric nanogenerator (4 x 4 cm(2)), including ultrahigh triboelectric output (open-circuit voltage V-OC = 540 V, short-circuit current I-SC = 42 mu A, short-circuit charge Q(SC) = 317 nC) and power density (7.42 W m(-2)), endowing the smart skin with reliable power source supply and self-powered sensing ability. This bioinspired smart skin exhibits multifunctional applications in health monitoring, visual sensing, and self-powered sensing, showing great potential in artificial intelligence.

Automated summary

The ultrasensitive self-powered mechanoluminescence smart skin (SPMSS) developed in this study combines the luminescence mechanism of cephalopod skin and the ultrasensitive response of spider-slit-organ, showing excellent strain sensing performances and highly sensitive mechanoluminescence features. Additionally, it functions as a reliable triboelectric nanogenerator with high triboelectric output and power density, demonstrating potential applications in health monitoring, visual sensing, and self-powered sensing in artificial intelligence.