Bioinspired Fluffy Fabric with In Situ Grown Carbon Nanotubes for Ultrasensitive Wearable Airflow Sensor |
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| Authors: | Haomin Wang Shuo Li Yiliang Wang Huimin Wang Xinyi Shen Mingchao Zhang Haojie Lu Maoshuai He Yingying Zhang |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Key Laboratory of Organic Optoelectronics and Molecular Engineering of the Ministry of Education, Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084 P. R. China;2. Key Laboratory of Organic Optoelectronics and Molecular Engineering of the Ministry of Education, Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084 P. R. China
Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 1TN UK;3. State Key Laboratory of Eco-Chemical Engineering, Ministry of Education, Taishan Scholar Advantage and Characteristic Discipline Team of Eco Chemical Process and Technology, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266042 P. R. China |
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| Abstract: | Recently, electronic skin and smart textiles have attracted considerable attention. Flexible sensors, as a kind of indispensable components of flexible electronics, have been extensively studied. However, wearable airflow sensors capable of monitoring the environment airflow in real time are rarely reported. Herein, by mimicking the spider's fluff, an ultrasensitive and flexible all-textile airflow sensor based on fabric with in situ grown carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is developed. The fabric decorated with fluffy-like CNTs possesses exceptionally large contact area, endowing the airflow sensor with superior properties including ultralow detection limit (≈0.05 m s−1), multiangle airflow differential response (0°–90°), and fast response time (≈1.3 s). Besides, the fluffy fabric airflow sensor can be combined with a pristine fabric airflow sensor to realize highly sensitive detection in a wide airflow range (0.05–7.0 m s−1). Its potential applications including transmitting information according to Morse code by blowing the sensors, monitoring increasing and decreasing airflow velocity, and alerting blind people walking outside about potential hazard induced by nearby fast-moving objects are demonstrated. Furthermore, the airflow sensor can be directly integrated into clothing as stylish designs without sacrificing comfortness. It is believed that the ultrasensitive all-textile airflow sensor holds great promise for applications in smart textiles and wearable electronics. |
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| Keywords: | airflow sensors bioinspired fluffy fabrics flexible electronics smart textiles |
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