Wearable and high-performance piezoresistive sensor based on nanofiber/sodium alginate synergistically enhanced MXene composite aerogel

The emerging wearable electronics promote the rapid development of flexible piezoresistive sensors. However, it remains a big challenge to develop a high-performance piezoresistive sensor with high sensitivity, wide pressure range, and stable output. Here, an lightweight (17.33 mg cm-3) cellulose acetate nanofiber/sodium alginate synergistically enhanced MXene composite aerogel is fabricated through a liquid nitrogen-assisted unidirectional-freezing strategy. The conductive MXene-based aerogel possesses excellent mechanical performance and high compressive strength (16 kPa). Importantly, the unique synergies endow the aerogel assembled piezoresistive sensor with an ultra-high sensitivity up to 114.55 kPa-1 in a wide pressure range up to 21.78 kPa, and it can withstand more than 24,000 cycles of compression. More interestingly, the prepared sensor can be used to realize real-time monitoring of various human activities and developed as a wireless device to transmit information. The unparalleled sensing performance endows the MXene composite aerogel with a broad application prospect in the field of flexible intelligent wearable devices.

Automated summary

This paper reports a lightweight cellulose acetate nanofiber/sodium alginate-enhanced MXene composite aerogel with excellent mechanical performance and high compressive strength. The sensor fabricated using a liquid nitrogen-assisted unidirectional-freezing strategy exhibits ultra-high sensitivity and stable output, with the ability to withstand multiple compression cycles within a wide pressure range.