High-performance multimodal smart textile for artificial sensation and health monitoring

Textile sensors are a branch of revolutionary electronics that carry tantalizing prospects toward myriad applications. However, their capability of differentiating multiple stimuli still remains a challenge. Here, we develop a multimodal smart textile that can simultaneously measure temperature and pulse/touch in real time, with high performance and no signal interference. The smart textile outputs two independent variables, with the whole textile as a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) to detect touch/pulse and its core thermoresistive micro/nano porous fiber strand (also is the TENG's working electrode) to detect temperature. The stretchable core thermoresistive micro/nano porous fiber of the smart textile achieves record-high thermal sensitivity (beta = 4994.55 K, alpha = - 5.58%/K at 26 degrees C) and the fastest response/recovery time (97/239 ms) among previously reported fiber/textile-based temperature sensors, to our best knowledge. This fiber based on the growth of Fe-2(MoO4)(3) on graphene has much higher temperature sensing performance (similar to 3.2 times higher thermal sensitivity) than that based on directly blending Fe-2(MoO4)(3) and graphene. Moreover, the fiber has high thermal stability and its temperature sensing performance is insensitive to strain (stretching, bending and pressing). The smart textile is demonstrated for artificial sensation and health monitoring to simultaneously provide accurate profiles of both temperature and touch/pulse. This work provides new insights for wearable sensors.

Automated summary

This article develops a multimodal smart textile that can simultaneously measure temperature and pulse/touch in real time, with high performance and no signal interference. The smart textile uses a triboelectric nanogenerator to detect touch/pulse and a core thermoresistive micro/nano porous fiber to detect temperature. The fiber has record-high thermal sensitivity and the fastest response/recovery time among previously reported fiber/textile-based temperature sensors.