Flexible electronics is pursuing a new generation of electronic skin and human–computer interaction. However, effectively detecting large dynamic ranges and highly sensitive human movements remains a challenge. In this study, flexible strain sensors with a self-assembled PDMS/MXene/MWCNT structure are fabricated, in which MXene particles are wrapped and bridged by dense MWCNTs, forming complex sliding conductive networks. Therefore, the strain sensor possesses an impressive sensitivity (gauge factor = 646) and 40% response range. Moreover, a fast response time of 280 ms and detection limit of 0.05% are achieved. The high performance enables good prospects in human detection, like human movement and pulse signals for healthcare. It is also applied to wearable smart data gloves, in which the CNN algorithm is utilized to identify 15 gestures, and the final recognition rate is up to 95%. This comprehensive performance strain sensor is designed for a wide array of human body detection applications and wearable intelligent systems.

Flexible pressure sensors have garnered significant attention over the past few decades owing to their indispensable role in electronic skin and health monitoring, and there is an urgent demand for high sensitivity to meet the requirements of large-scale applications. In this work, we demonstrate a resistive pressure sensor with self-assembled MXene/MWCNTs complex conductive networks, whose hollow substrate is achieved via designed molds and thermally expandable microspheres. Herein, the pressure sensor exhibits the desired performances, including a high sensitivity of 2.63 kPa⁻¹, an ultra-low detection limit of ~0.25% relative resistance change, and rapid response times of 340 ms. The high performance enables promising prospects for detecting diverse human body movements. More importantly, it has been applied in numerical classification based on machine learning with the Hidden Markov Model, achieving an impressive accuracy of ~99.2%. Our research offers novel insights for enhancing the performance of pressure sensors, which hold great potential for practical applications.