Ultrastretchable freezing-tolerant organohydrogels for health monitoring and triboelectric nanogenerator-based gesture recognition

• Published in: Nano energy Vol. 131; p. 110261
• Main Authors: Zhu, Yan, Li, Qingqing, Guo, Mengjia, Zhi, Xinrong, Xia, Yifan, Shi, Guolong, Wang, Xin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.12.2024
• Subjects: Freezing tolerance; Gesture recognition; Human health monitoring; NaCl-based organohydrogel; Triboelectric nanogenerator; Ultrastretchable; NaCl-based organohydrogel; Triboelectric nanogenerator; Freezing tolerance; Ultrastretchable; Human health monitoring; Gesture recognition
• ISSN: 2211-2855
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nanoen.2024.110261

Conductive hydrogel-based sensors have recently garnered significant attention in flexible wearable electronics, artificial intelligence and human-machine interaction due to their remarkable wearability and high conductivity. However, simultaneous realization of superior stretchability, environmental stability, and excellent electrical performance of conductive hydrogels via a simple approach remains a great challenge. Here, an ultrastretchable freezing-tolerant NaCl-based organohydrogel (N-OHG) is developed for health monitoring and gesture recognition. The abundant functional groups of trehalose form covalent-like hydrogen bonds with poly(acrylamide) (PAM)/poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), endowing high conductivity (10.1 S/m), stretchability (5000 %), transparency (78 %), freezing tolerance (–24 °C), and environmental stability (over 2 months) of the N-OHG. Furthermore, wearable strain sensor based on the N-OHG demonstrates superior sensitivity (GF=55.9, 0–4000 %) for health monitoring. Furthermore, the stretchable single-electrode-mode triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) based on the N-OHG as working electrode exhibits high output performances even in harsh environment (–24 °C). Additionally, leveraging its desirable performance in terms of TENG, a smart glove assembled by five TENG-based sensors has been developed for gesture recognition with high accuracy rate of 99.3 %. Consequently, the proposed N-OHG demonstrates a considerable potential as promising candidates in fields of personal healthcare, medical diagnostics, and human–machine interfaces. [Display omitted] •An ultrastretchable NaCl-based organohydrogel (N-OHG) is developed for health monitoring and gesture recognition.•The N-OHG demonstrates high conductivity (10.1 S/m), stretchability (5000 %), and freezing tolerance (–24 °C).•The N-OHG-based strain sensors demonstrate high sensitivity to monitor electrophysiological signals.•A smart glove based on the N-OHG-based TENG is developed for gesture recognition with high accuracy rate of 99.3 %.