Robust and flexible smart silk/PEDOT conductive fibers as wearable sensor for personal health management and information transmission

Flexible highly conductive fibers have attracted much attention due to their great potential in the field of wearable electronic devices. In this work, silk/PEDOT conductive fibers with a resistivity of 1.73 Omega center dot cm were obtained by oxidizing Ce3+ with H2O2 under alkaline conditions to produce CeO2 and further promote the in-situ polymerization of 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene (EDOT) on the surface of silk fibers. The morphology and chemical composition of the silk/PEDOT conductive fibers were characterized and the results confirmed that a large amount of polythiophene was synthesized and deposited on the surface of silk fibers. The conductivity and electrochemical property stability of the silk/PEDOT conductive fibers were evaluated by soaping and organic solvent immersion, and the conductive silk fibers exhibited excellent environmental stability and durability. The silk/PEDOT conductive fibers show good pressure sensing and strain sensing performance, which exhibits high sensitivity, fast response and cyclability, and have excellent applications in personal health monitoring, human-machine information transmission, etc.

Automated summary

In this study, silk/PEDOT conductive fibers with a resistivity of 1.73 Omega center dot cm were successfully obtained by oxidizing Ce3+ with H2O2 under alkaline conditions and promoting the in-situ polymerization of EDOT on the surface of silk fibers. The conductive fibers showed excellent environmental stability and durability, and exhibited good pressure and strain sensing performance. They have great potential in applications such as personal health monitoring and human-machine information transmission.