Stretchable Sensors: Novel Human Motion Monitoring Wearables

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2023 Aug 19;13(16):2375. doi: 10.3390/nano13162375.

Abstract

A human body monitoring system remains a significant focus, and to address the challenges in wearable sensors, a nanotechnology-enhanced strategy is proposed for designing stretchable metal-organic polymer nanocomposites. The nanocomposite comprises reduced graphene oxide (rGO) and in-situ generated silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) within elastic electrospun polystyrene-butadiene-polystyrene (SBS) fibers. The resulting Sandwich Structure Piezoresistive Woven Nanofabric (SSPWN) is a tactile-sensitive wearable sensor with remarkable performance. It exhibits a rapid response time (less than three milliseconds) and high reproducible stability over 5500 cycles. The nanocomposite also demonstrates exceptional thermal stability due to effective connections between rGO and AgNPs, making it suitable for wearable electronic applications. Furthermore, the SSPWN is successfully applied to human motion monitoring, including various areas of the hand and RGB sensing shoes for foot motion monitoring. This nanotechnology-enhanced strategy shows promising potential for intelligent healthcare, health monitoring, gait detection, and analysis, offering exciting prospects for future wearable electronic products.

Keywords: human body monitoring system; nanocomposites; nanotechnology-enhanced strategy; reduced graphene oxide (rGO); stretchable metal-organic polymer; wearable sensors.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by (1) the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan (Contracts: MOST 110-2222-E-214-001-MY2) and (2) I-Shou University (Contracts: ISU 111-S-01, ISU-112-SIO-01, ISU-112-SIO-02, ISU-112-BTC-01). The authors also thank the National Science and Technology Council, R.O.C (112-2813-C-214-012-E) for financially supporting this research.