Gel-Based Triboelectric Nanogenerators for Flexible Sensing:Principles,Properties,and Applications

The rapid development of the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence technologies has increased the need for wearable,portable,and self-powered flexible sensing devices.Triboelectric nanogenerators(TENGs)based on gel materials(with excellent conductivity,mechanical tunability,environmental adaptability,and biocompatibility)are considered an advanced approach for developing a new generation of flexible sensors.This review comprehensively summarizes the recent advances in gel-based TENGs for flexible sensors,covering their principles,properties,and applications.Based on the development requirements for flexible sensors,the working mechanism of gel-based TENGs and the characteristic advantages of gels are introduced.Design strategies for the performance optimization of hydrogel-,organogel-,and aerogel-based TENGs are systematically summarized.In addition,the applications of gel-based TENGs in human motion sensing,tactile sensing,health monitoring,environmental monitoring,human-machine interaction,and other related fields are summarized.Finally,the challenges of gel-based TENGs for flexible sensing are discussed,and feasible strategies are proposed to guide future research.

Crack Quantification of Bolted Joints by Using a Parallelogram Eddy Current Array Sensing Film

Crack monitoring at the bolt hole edge is one of the important focuses of aircraft structural health monitoring.In this study,a novel eddy current sensing film based on a parallelogram coil array is developed to quantitatively monitor the crack characteristics near the bolt hole with fewer layers and coils,compared with the existing methods.The parallelogram coil array configuration is designed and optimized to improve the quantitative monitoring ability of the crack.A 3×3 parallelogram coil array is used to quantify the crack parameters of aluminum bolted joints.Finite element simulation and experiments show that the proposed parallelogram coil array could not only accurately and quantitatively identify the crack angle at the edge of the bolt hole,but also track the crack length along the radial direction of the bolt hole and the depth along the axial direction.

Three-dimensional CeO_(2)@carbon-quantum-dots scaffold modified with Au nanoparticles on flexible substrates for high performance gas sensing at room temperature

High-performance gas sensing materials operated at room temperature(RT) are attractive for a variety of real-time gas monitoring applications,especially with the excellent durability and flexibility of wearable sensor.The constructing heterostructure is one of the significant approaches in design strategies of sensing materials.This heterostructure effectively increases the active site for improving sensing performance and decreasing energy consumption.Herein,the heterostructure of Au nanoparticles modified CeO_(2)@carbon-quantum-dots(Au/CeO_(2)@CQDs) with a three-dimensional(3D) scaffold structure are successfully synthesized by an effective strategy,which can apply for preparing flexible gas sensor.The gas sensing properties of Au/CeO_(2)@CQDs based on flexible substrate are obtained under long-term repeated NO_(2) exposure at RT.Meanwhile,the long-term mechanical stability of this gas sensing device is also detected after different bending cycles.The Au/CeO_(2)@CQDs based on flexible substrate sensor exhibits excellent performance,including higher sensitivity(47.2),faster response(18 s)and recovery time(22 s) as well as longer-term stability than performance of pure materials.The obtained sensor also reveals outstanding mechanical flexibility,which is only a tiny response fluctuation(8.1%) after 500 bending/relaxing cycles.Therefore,our study demonstrates the enormous potential of this sensing materials for hazardous gas monitoring in future portable and wearable sensing platform.

Hydrophobic ionic liquid-in-polymer composites for ultrafast,linear response and highly sensitive humidity sensing

Traditional ionic liquids are sensitive to humidity but with long response time and nonlinear response.Pure liquid-state ionic liquids are usually hard for dehydration which have ultralong response time for humidity sensing.The immobilization of ionic liquids provide a possible way for high performance humidity sensing.Hydrophobic materials and structures also promised faster response in humidity sensing,because of easier desorption of water.In this work,we prepared flexible humidity sensitive composites based on hydrophobic ionic liquid and polymer.The combination of hydrophobic ionic liquid with hydrophobic polymer realized linear response,high sensitivity with low hysteresis to humidity.By adjusting the ratio of ionic liquid,not only the impedance but also the hydrophobicity of composite could be modulated,which had a significant influence on the humidity sensing performance.The morphology and microstructure of the material also affected its interaction with water molecules.Due to the diverse processing methods of polymer,highly transparent film fabricated by spinning-coating and nanofibrous membrane fabricated by electrospinning could be prepared and exhibited different response time,which could be used for different application scenarios.Especially,the fibrous membrane made with electrospinning method showed an ultrafast response and could distinguish up to 120 Hz humidity change,due to its fibrous structure with high specific surface area.The humidity sensors with ultrafast,linear response and high sensitivity showed potential applications in human respiratory monitoring and flexible non-contact switch.To better show the multifunction of ionic liquid-polymer composite,as a proof of concept,we fabricated an integrated humidity sensitive color change device by utilizing lower ionic liquid content composite for sensing in the humidity sensing module and higher ionic liquid content composite as the electrolyte in the electrochromic module.