Conductive, water-retaining and knittable hydrogel fiber from xanthan gum and aniline tetramer modified-polysaccharide for strain and pressure sensors

Yaqi Zhang; Ruquan Zhang; Yongzhen Tao

doi:10.1016/j.carbpol.2023.121300

Conductive, water-retaining and knittable hydrogel fiber from xanthan gum and aniline tetramer modified-polysaccharide for strain and pressure sensors

Carbohydr Polym. 2023 Dec 1:321:121300. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2023.121300. Epub 2023 Aug 15.

Authors

Yaqi Zhang¹, Ruquan Zhang², Yongzhen Tao³

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of New Textile Materials and Advanced Processing Technologies, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan 430073, China.
² School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Wuhan Textile University, 430200 Wuhan, China. Electronic address: ruquanzhang76@wtu.edu.cn.
³ State Key Laboratory of New Textile Materials and Advanced Processing Technologies, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan 430073, China; School of Material Science and Engineering, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan 430073, China. Electronic address: yongzhentao@wtu.edu.cn.

PMID: 37739505
DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2023.121300

Abstract

Herein, we explored strategies for defoaming and controllable adjustment of spinnable and mechanical properties of polyanion polysaccharide-based hydrogels to fabricate conductive, water-retaining, and knittable hydrogel fibers for next-generation flexible electronics. Xanthan gum (XG) and aniline tetramer modified-polysaccharide (TMAT38) were crosslinked with sodium trimetaphosphate (STMP) and subsequently by Fe³⁺/Fe²⁺ ions coordination to prepare conductive and spinnable hydrogels. Polypropylene glycol was introduced as chemical antifoam, and solvent displacement method was adopted to improve mechanical and water-retaining properties. The glycerol-immersed XG5-TMAT38-STMP-Fe³⁺/CA-PPG hydrogel exhibited conductivity of 3.55×10^-3-27.30×10^-3 S/cm, storage modulus at linear viscoelastic region of 573 Pa-1717 Pa and self-healing percentage of 100 %-108 %. The 2 h glycerol-immersed hydrogel fibers with good flexibility, moisture retention and freezing tolerance were ready to bend and knit into fabrics. The hydrogel fiber braid possessed better conductivity, reliability and durability than the single hydrogel fiber as strain sensors. The hydrogel fiber fabric perceived tiny vibration triggered by swallowing, speaking and writing with good sensitivity and reproducibility. Furthermore, a three-component model was developed to evaluate response sensitivity and recoverability of the hydrogel fiber fabric-based pressure sensors, which facilitated understanding transient response of polymer-based hydrogel strain and pressure sensors.

Keywords: Aniline tetramer modified-polysaccharide; Conductive and knittable hydrogel fiber; Developed three-component model; Strain and pressure sensors; Xanthan gum.