Ti3C2Tx MXene-Polymeric Strain Sensor with Huge Gauge Factor for Body Movement Detection

Micromachines (Basel). 2022 Aug 12;13(8):1302. doi: 10.3390/mi13081302.

Abstract

In this work, a composite strain sensor is fabricated by synthesizing MXene and deposition of polypyrrole on top of the flexible electrospun PVDF nanofibers. The fabricated sensor exhibits a conductive network constructed with MXene and polypyrrole of microcracks network structure, demonstrating its strain sensing properties. The presence of these microcracks serves as mechanical weak points, which leads to sensitivity enhancement, while the electrospun fiber substrate act as a cushion for strain loading under large deformations. The as-prepared MXene@Polypyrrole PVDF sensor has a gauge factor range of 78-355 with a sensing range between 0-100%. Besides strain deformations, the sensor can operate in torsional deformation and human motion, indicating the sensor's potential as a wearable health monitoring device.

Keywords: Ti3C2Tx-MXene; polypyrrole; strain sensing; torsion.