Flexible, Stretchable Sensors for Wearable Health Monitoring: Sensing Mechanisms, Materials, Fabrication Strategies and Features

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Abstract

Wearable health monitoring systems have gained considerable interest in recent years owing to their tremendous promise for personal portable health watching and remote medical practices. The sensors with excellent flexibility and stretchability are crucial components that can provide health monitoring systems with the capability of continuously tracking physiological signals of human body without conspicuous uncomfortableness and invasiveness. The signals acquired by these sensors, such as body motion, heart rate, breath, skin temperature and metabolism parameter, are closely associated with personal health conditions. This review attempts to summarize the recent progress in flexible and stretchable sensors, concerning the detected health indicators, sensing mechanisms, functional materials, fabrication strategies, basic and desired features. The potential challenges and future perspectives of wearable health monitoring system are also briefly discussed.

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Most cited references 198

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Carbon nanotubes: present and future commercial applications.

Michael F. L. De Volder, Sameh H Tawfick, Ray Baughman … (2013)

Worldwide commercial interest in carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is reflected in a production capacity that presently exceeds several thousand tons per year. Currently, bulk CNT powders are incorporated in diverse commercial products ranging from rechargeable batteries, automotive parts, and sporting goods to boat hulls and water filters. Advances in CNT synthesis, purification, and chemical modification are enabling integration of CNTs in thin-film electronics and large-area coatings. Although not yet providing compelling mechanical strength or electrical or thermal conductivities for many applications, CNT yarns and sheets already have promising performance for applications including supercapacitors, actuators, and lightweight electromagnetic shields.

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A stretchable carbon nanotube strain sensor for human-motion detection.

Yuki Yamamoto, Yoshiki Yomogida, Yuki Yamamoto … (2011)

Devices made from stretchable electronic materials could be incorporated into clothing or attached directly to the body. Such materials have typically been prepared by engineering conventional rigid materials such as silicon, rather than by developing new materials. Here, we report a class of wearable and stretchable devices fabricated from thin films of aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes. When stretched, the nanotube films fracture into gaps and islands, and bundles bridging the gaps. This mechanism allows the films to act as strain sensors capable of measuring strains up to 280% (50 times more than conventional metal strain gauges), with high durability, fast response and low creep. We assembled the carbon-nanotube sensors on stockings, bandages and gloves to fabricate devices that can detect different types of human motion, including movement, typing, breathing and speech.

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Autonomic healing of polymer composites.

S R White, N Sottos, P H Geubelle … (2001)

Structural polymers are susceptible to damage in the form of cracks, which form deep within the structure where detection is difficult and repair is almost impossible. Cracking leads to mechanical degradation of fibre-reinforced polymer composites; in microelectronic polymeric components it can also lead to electrical failure. Microcracking induced by thermal and mechanical fatigue is also a long-standing problem in polymer adhesives. Regardless of the application, once cracks have formed within polymeric materials, the integrity of the structure is significantly compromised. Experiments exploring the concept of self-repair have been previously reported, but the only successful crack-healing methods that have been reported so far require some form of manual intervention. Here we report a structural polymeric material with the ability to autonomically heal cracks. The material incorporates a microencapsulated healing agent that is released upon crack intrusion. Polymerization of the healing agent is then triggered by contact with an embedded catalyst, bonding the crack faces. Our fracture experiments yield as much as 75% recovery in toughness, and we expect that our approach will be applicable to other brittle materials systems (including ceramics and glasses).

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Sensors (Basel)

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Sensors (Basel)

Journal ID (publisher-id): sensors

Title: Sensors (Basel, Switzerland)

Publisher: MDPI

ISSN (Electronic): 1424-8220

Publication date (Electronic): 22 February 2018

Publication date Collection: February 2018

Volume: 18

Issue: 2

Electronic Location Identifier: 645

Affiliations

[1 ]Key Laboratory of Electronic Equipment Structure Design, Ministry of Education, Xidian University, Xi’an 710071, China; liuy@ 123456xidian.edu.cn (Y.L.); qhb0920qhb@ 123456xidian.edu.cn (H.Q.); yqxie@ 123456xidian.edu.cn (Y.X.)

[2 ]School of Aerospace Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi’an 710071, China; wanghai@ 123456mail.xidian.edu.cn (H.W.); minzhanghk@ 123456gmail.com (M.Z.)

Author notes

[* ]Correspondence: weizhao@ 123456xidian.edu.cn ; Tel.: +86-29-8820-3115

Author information

Min Zhang https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8681-5889

Article

Publisher ID: sensors-18-00645

DOI: 10.3390/s18020645

PMC ID: 5856015

PubMed ID: 29470408

SO-VID: 7460a1d5-bd4c-4818-8730-6cd49e0f3278

License:

Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Flexible, Stretchable Sensors for Wearable Health Monitoring: Sensing Mechanisms, Materials, Fabrication Strategies and Features

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Abstract

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Journal of Disability Research

Most cited references 198

Carbon nanotubes: present and future commercial applications.

A stretchable carbon nanotube strain sensor for human-motion detection.

Autonomic healing of polymer composites.

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