New-generation human body motion sensors for wearable electronics and intelligent medicine are required to comply with stringent requirements in terms of ultralight weight, flexibility, stability, biocompatibility, and extreme precision. However, conventional sensors are hard to fulfill all these criteria due to their rigid structure, high-density sensing materials used as the constituents, as well as hermetical and compact assembly strategy. Here, we report an ultralight sensing material based on radial anisotropic porous silver fiber (RAPSF), which has been manufactured by phase separation and temperature-controlled grain growth strategy on a modified blow-spinning system. The resistance of RAPSF could be dynamically adjusted depending on the deflected shape. Furthermore, an all-fiber motion sensor (AFMS) with an ultra-low density of 68.70 mg cm−3and an overall weigh of 7.95 mg was fabricated via layer-by-layer assembly. The sensor exhibited outstanding flexibility, breathability, biocompatibility, and remarkable body motion recognition ability. Moreover, the AFMS was shown to have great potential as an artificial intelligence throat sensor for throat state identification at the accuracy above 85%, allowing one to spot the early onset of the viral throat illness.
17 December 2019 in Advanced Materials Technologies
Noninvasive brain-computer interface (BCI) has been extensively studied from many aspects in the past decade. In order to broaden the practical applications of BCI technique, it is essential to develop electrodes for electroencephalogram (EEG) collection with advanced characteristics such as high conductivity, long-term effectiveness, and biocompatibility. In this study, we developed a silver-nanowire/PVA hydrogel/melamine sponge (AgPHMS) semidry EEG electrode for long-lasting monitoring of EEG signal. Benefiting from the water storage capacity of PVA hydrogel, the electrolyte solution can be continuously released to the scalp-electrode interface during used. The electrolyte solution can infiltrate the stratum corneum and reduce the scalp-electrode impedance to 10 kΩ-15 kΩ. The flexible structure enables the electrode with mechanical stability, increases the wearing comfort, and reduces the scalp-electrode gap to reduce contact impedance. As a result, a long-term BCI application based on measurements of motion-onset visual evoked potentials (mVEPs) shows that the 3-hour BCI accuracy of the new electrode (77% to 100%) is approximately the same as that of conventional electrodes supported by a conductive gel during the first hour. Furthermore, the BCI system based on the new electrode can retain low contact impedance for 10 hours on scalp, which greatly improved the ability of BCI technique.
Self-supporting electrodes usually show excellent electrocatalytic performance which does not require coating steps, additional polymer binders, and conductive additives. Rapid in situ growth of highly active ingredient on self-supporting electric conductors is identified as a straight forward path to prepare binder-free and integrated electrodes. Here, Pd-doped Co3O4 loaded on carbon nanofiber materials through electrospinning and heat treatment was efficiently synthesized, and used as a free-standing electrode. Benefiting from its abundant active sites, high surface area and effective ionic conduction capability from three-dimensional (3D) nanofiber framework, Pd-Co3O4@CNF works as bifunctional oxygen electrode and exhibits superior activity and stability superior to commercial catalysts.