The Fabrication and Detection Performance of High Sensitivity Au-Ag Alloy Nanostar/Paper Flexible Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy Sensors

Au-Ag alloy nanostars based flexible paper surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy sensors were fabricated through simple nanostar coating on regular office paper,and the surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy detection performances were investigated using crystal violet dye analyte.Au-Ag nanostars with sharp tips were synthesized via metal ions reduction method.Transmission electron microscope images,X-Ray diffraction pattern and energy dispersive spectroscopy elemental mapping confirmed the nanostar geometry and Au/Ag components of the nanostructure.UV-Vis-NIR absorption spectrum shows wide local surface plasmon resonance induced optical extinction.In addition,finite-difference time-domain simulation shows much stronger electromagnetic field from nanostars than from sphere nanoparticle.The effect of coating layer on Raman signal intensities was discussed,and optimized 5-layer coating with best Raman signal was obtained.The Au-Ag nanostatrs homogeneously distribute on paper fiber surface.The detection limit is 10-10 M,and the relationship between analyte concentrations and Raman signal intensities shows well linear,for potential quantitative analysis.The calculated enhancement factor is 4.795×10^(6).The flexible paper surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy sensors could be applied for trace chemical and biology molecule detection.

Preparation and Performance Study of PVA-Based Flexible Sensors

Flexible sensors have great potential for monitoring human body motion signals. This paper presents a flexible sensor that uses zinc oxide (ZnO) to improve the mechanical properties and electrical conductivity of PVA hydrogel. The composite hydrogel has excellent conductive properties and high strain sensitivity, making it suitable for motion monitoring. The PVA/ZnO conductive hydrogel is tested on various body parts, showing effective feedback on movement changes and good electrical signal output effects for different motion degrees, confirming its feasibility in flexible sensors. The sensor exhibits good mechanical properties, electrical conductivity, and tensile strain sensing performance, making it a promising sensor material. It can accurately monitor wrist bending, finger deformation, bending, and large-scale joint movements due to its wide monitoring range and recoverable strain. The results show that the PVA/ZnO conductive hydrogel can provide effective feedback in flexible sensors, which is suitable for use in motion monitoring.

Flexible temperature sensor with high sensitivity ranging from liquid nitrogen temperature to 1200℃

Flexible temperature sensors have been extensively investigated due to their prospect of wide application in various flexible electronic products.However,most of the current flexible temperature sensors only work well in a narrow temperature range,with their application at high or low temperatures still being a big challenge.This work proposes a flexible thermocouple temperature sensor based on aerogel blanket substrate,the temperature-sensitive layer of which uses the screen-printing technology to prepare indium oxide and indium tin oxide.It has good temperature sensitivity,with the test sensitivity reaching 226.7μV℃^(−1).Most importantly,it can work in a wide temperature range,from extremely low temperatures down to liquid nitrogen temperature to high temperatures up to 1200℃,which is difficult to be achieved by other existing flexible temperature sensors.This temperature sensor has huge application potential in biomedicine,aerospace and other fields.

Laser direct writing of Ga_(2)O_(3)/liquid metal-based flexible humidity sensors

Flexible and wearable humidity sensors play a vital role in daily point-of-care diagnosis and noncontact human-machine interactions.However,achieving a facile and high-speed fabrication approach to realizing flexible humidity sensors remains a challenge.In this work,a wearable capacitive-type Ga_(2)O_(3)/liquid metal-based humidity sensor is demonstrated by a one-step laser direct writing technique.Owing to the photothermal effect of laser,the Ga_(2)O_(3)-wrapped liquid metal particles can be selectively sintered and converted from insulative to conductive traces with a resistivity of 0.19Ω·cm,while the untreated regions serve as active sensing layers in response to moisture changes.Under 95%relative humidity,the humidity sensor displays a highly stable performance along with rapid response and recover time.Utilizing these superior properties,the Ga_(2)O_(3)/liquid metal-based humidity sensor is able to monitor human respiration rate,as well as skin moisture of the palm under different physiological states for healthcare monitoring.

Nanomaterial-based flexible sensors for metaverse and virtual reality applications

Nanomaterial-based flexible sensors(NMFSs)can be tightly attached to the human skin or integrated with clothing to monitor human physiological information,provide medical data,or explore metaverse spaces.Nanomaterials have been widely incorporated into flexible sensors due to their facile processing,material compatibility,and unique properties.This review highlights the recent advancements in NMFSs involving various nanomaterial frameworks such as nanoparticles,nanowires,and nanofilms.Different triggering interaction interfaces between NMFSs and metaverse/virtual reality(VR)applications,e.g.skin-mechanics-triggered,temperature-triggered,magnetically triggered,and neural-triggered interfaces,are discussed.In the context of interfacing physical and virtual worlds,machine learning(ML)has emerged as a promising tool for processing sensor data for controlling avatars in metaverse/VR worlds,and many ML algorithms have been proposed for virtual interaction technologies.This paper discusses the advantages,disadvantages,and prospects of NMFSs in metaverse/VR applications.

MXene-based flexible pressure sensor with piezoresistive properties significantly enhanced by atomic layer infiltration

The flexible pressure sensor has been credited for leading performance including higher sensitivity,faster response/recovery,wider detection range and higher mechanical durability,thus driving the development of novel sensing materials enabled by new processing technologies.Using atomic layer infiltration,Pt nanocrystals with dimensions on the order of a few nanometers can be infiltrated into the compressible lamellar structure of Ti3C2Tx MXene,allowing a modulation of its interlayer spacing,electrical conductivity and piezoresistive property.The flexible piezoresistive sensor is further developed from the Pt-infiltrated MXene on a paper substrate.It is demonstrated that Pt infiltration leads to a significant enhancement of the pressure-sensing performance of the sensor,including increase of sensitivity from 0.08 kPa^(-1)to 0.5 kPa^(-1),extension of detection limit from 5 kPa to 9 kPa,decrease of response time from 200 ms to 20 ms,and reduction of recovery time from 230 ms to 50 ms.The mechanical durability of the flexible sensor is also improved,with the piezoresistive performance stable over 1000 cycles of flexure fatigue.The atomic layer infiltration process offers new possibilities for the structure modification of MXene for advanced sensor applications.

A self-healing and conductive ionic hydrogel based on polysaccharides for flexible sensors

In this study,we proposed a self-healing conductive hydrogel based on polysaccharides and Li+to serve as flexible sensors.At first,the oxidized sodium alginate(OSA)was obtained through the oxidation reaction of sodium alginate(SA).Then OSA,carboxymethyl chitosan(CMC),and agarose(AGO)were dissolved in LiCl solution,respectively.Finally,the hydrogel was obtained through heating,mixing,and cooling processes.Because of the Schiff base structure and hydrogen bonding,the hydrogel demonstrates good mechanical and self-healing properties.The presence of Li+provides good conductivity for the hydrogel.In addition,we demonstrated the application of the hydrogel as the flexible sensors.It can perceive the process of pressing Morse code with the index finger as a pressure sensor and monitor sliding movement of the thumb as the strain sensor to browse the web with the mobile phone.Thus,the selfhealing conductive hydrogel may have potential applications in flexible wearable sensors.

Direct fabrication of flexible tensile sensors enabled by polariton energy transfer based on graphene nanosheet films

A fundamental problem in the direct manufacturing of flexible devices is the low melting temperature of flexible substrates,which hinders the development of flexible electronics.Proposed here is an electron-cyclotron-resonance sputtering system that can batch-fabricate devices directly on flexible substrates under a low temperature by virtue of the polariton energy transfer between the plasma and the material.Flexible graphene nanosheet-embedded carbon(F-GNEC)films are manufactured directly on polyimide,polyethylene terephthalate,and polydimethylsiloxane,and how the substrate bias(electron energy),microwave power(plasma flux and energy),and magnetic field(electron flux)affect the nanostructure of the F-GNEC films is investigated,indicating that electron energy and flux contribute to the formation of standing graphene nanosheets in the film.The films have good uniformity of distribution in a large size(17 mm×17 mm),and tensile and angle sensors with a high gauge factor(0.92)and fast response(50 ms)for a machine hand are obtained by virtue of the unique nanostructure of the F-GNEC film.This work sheds light on the quantum manufacturing of carbon sensors and its applications for intelligent machine hands and virtual-reality technology.

Machine Learning‑Enhanced Flexible Mechanical Sensing

To realize a hyperconnected smart society with high productivity,advances in flexible sensing technology are highly needed.Nowadays,flexible sensing technology has witnessed improvements in both the hardware performances of sensor devices and the data processing capabilities of the device’s software.Significant research efforts have been devoted to improving materials,sensing mechanism,and configurations of flexible sensing systems in a quest to fulfill the requirements of future technology.Meanwhile,advanced data analysis methods are being developed to extract useful information from increasingly complicated data collected by a single sensor or network of sensors.Machine learning(ML)as an important branch of artificial intelligence can efficiently handle such complex data,which can be multi-dimensional and multi-faceted,thus providing a powerful tool for easy interpretation of sensing data.In this review,the fundamental working mechanisms and common types of flexible mechanical sensors are firstly presented.Then how ML-assisted data interpretation improves the applications of flexible mechanical sensors and other closely-related sensors in various areas is elaborated,which includes health monitoring,human-machine interfaces,object/surface recognition,pressure prediction,and human posture/motion identification.Finally,the advantages,challenges,and future perspectives associated with the fusion of flexible mechanical sensing technology and ML algorithms are discussed.These will give significant insights to enable the advancement of next-generation artificial flexible mechanical sensing.

Flexible Tactile Electronic Skin Sensor with 3D Force Detection Based on Porous CNTs/PDMS Nanocomposites

Flexible tactile sensors have broad applications in human physiological monitoring,robotic operation and human-machine interaction.However,the research of wearable and flexible tactile sensors with high sensitivity,wide sensing range and ability to detect three-dimensional(3D)force is still very challenging.Herein,a flexible tactile electronic skin sensor based on carbon nanotubes(CNTs)/polydimethylsiloxane(PDMS)nanocomposites is presented for 3D contact force detection.The 3D forces were acquired from combination of four specially designed cells in a sensing element.Contributed from the double-sided rough porous structure and specific surface morphology of nanocomposites,the piezoresistive sensor possesses high sensitivity of 12.1 kPa?1 within the range of 600 Pa and 0.68 kPa?1 in the regime exceeding 1 kPa for normal pressure,as well as 59.9 N?1 in the scope of<0.05 N and>2.3 N?1 in the region of<0.6 N for tangential force with ultra-low response time of 3.1 ms.In addition,multi-functional detection in human body monitoring was employed with single sensing cell and the sensor array was integrated into a robotic arm for objects grasping control,indicating the capacities in intelligent robot applications.

A NEW FABRICATION PROCESS FOR A FLEXIBLE SKIN WITH TEMPERATURE SENSOR ARRAY AND ITS APPLICATIONS

This paper reports a novel technique for fabrication of a flexible skin with a temperature sensor array (40×1 sensors). A simplified MEMS technology using platinum resistors as sensing materials, which are sandwiched between two polyimide layers as flexible substrates is developed. The two polyimide layers are deposited on top of a thin aluminum layer, which serves as a sacrificial layer such that the flexible skin can be released by metal etching and peeled off easily. The flexible skin with a temperature sensor array has a high mechanical flexibility and can be handily attached on a highly curved surface to detect tiny temperature distribution inside a small area. The sensor array shows a linear output and has a sensitivity of 7.5 mV/°C (prior to amplifiers) at a drive current of 1 mA. To demonstrate its applications, two examples have been demonstrated, including measurement of temperature distribution around a micro heater of a micro PCR (polymerase chain reaction) chip for DNA amplification and detection of separation point for flow over a circular cylinder. The development of the flexible skin with a temperature sensor array may be crucial for measuring temperature distribution on any curved surface in the fields of aerodynamics, space exploration, auto making and biomedical applications etc.

Multifunctional Flexible Humidity Sensor Systems Towards Noncontact Wearable Electronics

In the past decade,the global industry and research attentions on intelligent skin-like electronics have boosted their applications in diverse fields including human healthcare,Internet of Things,human–machine interfaces,artificial intelligence and soft robotics.Among them,flexible humidity sensors play a vital role in noncontact measurements relying on the unique property of rapid response to humidity change.This work presents an overview of recent advances in flexible humidity sensors using various active functional materials for contactless monitoring.Four categories of humidity sensors are highlighted based on resistive,capacitive,impedance-type and voltage-type working mechanisms.Furthermore,typical strategies including chemical doping,structural design and Joule heating are introduced to enhance the performance of humidity sensors.Drawing on the noncontact perception capability,human/plant healthcare management,human-machine interactions as well as integrated humidity sensor-based feedback systems are presented.The burgeoning innovations in this research field will benefit human society,especially during the COVID-19 epidemic,where cross-infection should be averted and contactless sensation is highly desired.

Nanofiber/nanowires-based flexible and stretchable sensors

Nanofibers/nanowires with one-dimension(1D)nanostructure or well-patterned microstructure have shown distinctly advantages in flexible and stretchable sensor fields,owing to their remarkable tolerance against mechanical bending or stretching,outstanding electronic/optoelectronic properties,good transparency,and excellent geometry.Herein,latest summaries in the unique structure and properties of nanofiber/nanowire function materials and their applications for flexible and stretchable sensor are highlighted.Several types of high-performance nanofiber/nanowire-based flexible pressure and stretchable sensors are also reviewed.Finally,a conclusion and prospect for 1D nanofiber/nanowires-based flexible and stretchable sensors are also intensively discussed.This summary offers new insights for the development of flexible and stretchable sensor based 1D nanostructure in next-generation flexible electronics.

Electrospinning of Flexible Poly(vinyl alcohol)/MXene Nanofiber-Based Humidity Sensor Self-Powered by Monolayer Molybdenum Diselenide Piezoelectric Nanogenerator

Two-dimensional material has been widely investigated for potential applications in sensor and flexible electronics.In this work,a self-powered flexible humidity sensing device based on poly(vinyl alcohol)/Ti_(3)C_(2)Tx(PVA/MXene)nanofibers film and monolayer molybdenum diselenide(MoSe2)piezoelectric nanogenerator(PENG)was reported for the first time.The monolayer MoSe_(2)-based PENG was fabricated by atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition techniques,which can generate a peak output of 35 mV and a power density of42 mW m^(-2).The flexible PENG integrated on polyethylene terephthalate(PET)substrate can harvest energy generated by different parts of human body and exhibit great application prospects in wearable devices.The electrospinned PVA/MXene nanofiber-based humidity sensor with flexible PET substrate under the driven of monolayer MoSe_(2) PENG,shows high response of~40,fast response/recovery time of 0.9/6.3 s,low hysteresis of 1.8%and excellent repeatability.The self-powered flexible humidity sensor yields the capability of detecting human skin moisture and ambient humidity.This work provides a pathway to explore the high-performance humidity sensor integrated with PENG for the self-powered flexible electronic devices.

Laser direct writing and characterizations of flexible piezoresistive sensors with microstructures

Functional materials with high viscosity and solid materials have received more and more attentions in flexible pressure sensors,which are inadequate in the most used molding method.Herein,laser direct writing(LDW)method is proposed to fabricate flexible piezoresistive sensors with microstructures on PDMS/MWCNTs composites with an 8%MWCNTs mass fraction.By controlling laser energy,microstructures with different geometries can be obtained,which significantly impacts the performances of the sensors.Subsequently,curved microcones with excellent performance are fabricated under parameters of f=40 kHz and v=150 mm·s^(-1).The sensor exhibits continuous multi-linear sensitivity,ultrahigh original sensitivity of 21.80%kPa^(-1),wide detection range of over 20 kPa,response/recovery time of~100 ms and good cycle stability for more than 1000 times.Besides,obvious resistance variation can be observed when tiny pressure(a peanut of 30 Pa)is applied.Finally,the flexible piezoresistive sensor can be applied for LED brightness controlling,pulse detection and voice recognition.

Morphological Engineering of Sensing Materials for Flexible Pressure Sensors and Artificial Intelligence Applications

As an indispensable branch of wearable electronics,flexible pressure sensors are gaining tremendous attention due to their extensive applications in health monitoring,human-machine interaction,artificial intelligence,the internet of things,and other fields.In recent years,highly flexible and wearable pressure sensors have been developed using various materials/structures and transduction mechanisms.Morphological engineering of sensing materials at the nanometer and micrometer scales is crucial to obtaining superior sensor performance.This review focuses on the rapid development of morphological engineering technologies for flexible pressure sensors.We discuss different architectures and morphological designs of sensing materials to achieve high performance,including high sensitivity,broad working range,stable sensing,low hysteresis,high transparency,and directional or selective sensing.Additionally,the general fabrication techniques are summarized,including self-assembly,patterning,and auxiliary synthesis methods.Furthermore,we present the emerging applications of high-performing microengineered pressure sensors in healthcare,smart homes,digital sports,security monitoring,and machine learning-enabled computational sensing platform.Finally,the potential challenges and prospects for the future developments of pressure sensors are discussed comprehensively.

Flexible Waterproof Piezoresistive Pressure Sensors with Wide Linear Working Range Based on Conductive Fabrics

Developing flexible sensors with high working performance holds intense interest for diverse applications in leveraging the Internet-of-things(IoT)infrastructures.For flexible piezoresistive sensors,traditionally most efforts are focused on tailoring the sensing materials to enhance the contact resistance variation for improving the sensitivity and working range,and it,however,remains challenging to simultaneously achieve flexible sensor with a linear working range over a high-pressure region(>100 kPa)and keep a reliable sensitivity.Herein,we devised a laserengraved silver-coated fabric as"soft"sensor electrode material to markedly advance the flexible sensor's linear working range to a level of 800 kPa with a high sensitivity of 6.4 kPa^-1 yet a fast response time of only 4 ms as well as long-time durability,which was rarely reported before.The integrated sensor successfully routed the wireless signal of pulse rate to the portable smartphone,further demonstrating its potential as a reliable electronic.Along with the rationally building the electrode instead of merely focusing on sensing materials capable of significantly improving the sensor's performance,we expect that this design concept and sensor system could potentially pave the way for developing more advanced wearable electronics in the future.

Low-temperature metal–oxide thin-film transistor technologies for implementing flexible electronic circuits and systems

Here we review two 300℃metal–oxide(MO)thin-film transistor(TFT)technologies for the implementation of flexible electronic circuits and systems.Fluorination-enhanced TFTs for suppressing the variation and shift of turn-on voltage(VON),and dual-gate TFTs for acquiring sensor signals and modulating VON have been deployed to improve the robustness and performance of the systems in which they are deployed.Digital circuit building blocks based on fluorinated TFTs have been designed,fabricated,and characterized,which demonstrate the utility of the proposed low-temperature TFT technologies for implementing flexible electronic systems.The construction and characterization of an analog front-end system for the acquisition of bio-potential signals and an active-matrix sensor array for the acquisition of tactile images have been reported recently.

Recent Progress on Flexible Room-Temperature Gas Sensors Based on Metal Oxide Semiconductor

With the rapid development of the Internet of Things,there is a great demand for portable gas sensors.Metal oxide semiconductors(MOS)are one of the most traditional and well-studied gas sensing materials and have been widely used to prepare various commercial gas sensors.However,it is limited by high operating temperature.The current research works are directed towards fabricating high-performance flexible room-temperature(FRT)gas sensors,which are effective in simplifying the structure of MOS-based sensors,reducing power consumption,and expanding the application of portable devices.This article presents the recent research progress of MOS-based FRT gas sensors in terms of sensing mechanism,performance,flexibility characteristics,and applications.This review comprehensively summarizes and discusses five types of MOS-based FRT gas sensors,including pristine MOS,noble metal nanoparticles modified MOS,organic polymers modified MOS,carbon-based materials(carbon nanotubes and graphene derivatives)modified MOS,and two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides materials modified MOS.The effect of light-illuminated to improve gas sensing performance is further discussed.Furthermore,the applications and future perspectives of FRT gas sensors are also discussed.

Flexible fiber-laser ultrasound sensor for multiscale photoacoustic imaging

Photoacoustic imag ing(PAI)is a nonin vasive biomedical imag ing tech no logy capable of multiscale imag ing of biological samples from orga ns dow n to cells.Multiscale PAI requires differe nt ultraso und tra nsducers that are flat or focused because the current widely-used piezoelectric transducers are rigid and lack the flexibility to tune their spatial ultrasound responses.Inspired by the rapidly-developing flexible photonics,we exploited the inherent flexibility and low-loss features of optical fibers to develop a flexible fiber-laser ultrasound sensor(FUS)for multiscale PAI.By simply bending the fiber laser from straight to curved geometry,the spatial ultraso und resp onse of the FUS can be tuned for both wide-view optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy at optical diffraction-limited depth(~1 mm)and photoacoustic computed tomography at optical dissipation-limited depth of several centimeters.A radio-frequency demodulation was employed to get the readout of the beat frequency variation of two orthogonal polarization modes in the FUS output,which ensures low-noise and stable ultrasound detection.Compared to traditional piezoelectrical transducers with fixed ultrasound responses once manufactured,the flexible FUS provides the freedom to design multiscale PAI modalities including wearable microscope,intravascular endoscopy,and portable tomography system,which is attractive to fundamental biologic-al/medical studies and clinical applications.