Solution Processed Sensing Textiles with Adjustable Sensitivity and Linear-detection Range Enabled by Twisting Structure

Wearable strain sensors are emerging rapidly for their promising applications in human motion detection for diagnosis, healthcare, training instruction and rehabilitation exercise assessment. However, it remains a bottleneck in gaining comfortable and breathable devices with the features of high sensitivity, linear response and tunable detection range. Textiles possess fascinating advantages of good breathability, aesthetic property, tailorability, and excellent mechanical compliance to conformably attach to human body. Since the meandering loops in textile can be extended in different directions, it provides plenty of room for exploring ideal sensors by tuning twisting structure with rationally selected yarn materials. Herein, textile sensors with twisting architecture are designed via a solution-based process by using a stable water-based conductive ink that is composed of polypyrrole/polyvinyl alcohol (PPy/PVA) nanoparticles with a mean diameter of 50 nm. Depending on pre-designed twisting models, thus...