Interconnected Carbon Networks for Wearable Sensors

Abstract

Wearable piezoresistive physical sensors have attracted tremendous attention due to their broad applications in human-machine interfaces, robotics, health-monitoring, personalized medicine and therapeutics. Conventional metal- and semiconductor-based strain sensors are rigid, fragile, and opaque, restricting their applications in wearable electronics. Among various nanostructured materials that have been explored to construct stretchable piezoresistive sensors, carbon-based networks show the potential of achieving improved sensing performance. We present several novel carbon-based interconnected networks including expanded graphite, carbon nanofiber, graphene woven fabric, graphite nanoplatelet welded carbon nanotube networks, wrinkled and crack-bridging graphene film, unidirectional graphene aerogel, and graphene foam as highly sensitive, flexible, and stretchable strain sensors capable of detecting human motions. By bridging the technological gap between signal collection, processing and transmission, and allowing data transmission to a smartphone via a custom-developed application consisting of a user-friendly interface, several wearable applications including wireless wearable musical instrument prototype, human motion detection and switch controls are demonstrated. The novel approaches reported here offer a wide range of practical applications, including medical diagnosis, health monitoring, early warning systems for structural failure, and wearable displays.

Speaker

Dr Qingbin Zheng received his PhD Degree from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) in 2011. Prior to joining The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen (CUHKSZ) as an Assistant Professor in 2019, he held various academic positions worldwide, including Research Assistant Professor at the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at HKUST and Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden, Germany. Dr Zheng has received many awards including National High-Level Young Talent, Presidential Young Fellow of CUHKSZ, Fellow of the International Association of Advanced Materials, Junior Fellow of the HKUST Jockey Club Institute for Advanced Study, and Alexander Von Humboldt Fellowship of Germany. Dr Zheng’s research focuses on advanced carbon materials, ranging from nanocomposites with graphene, carbon nanotubes, carbon nanofibers and 2D materials, to nanostructured materials for various wearable applications. He has published more than 80 peer reviewed papers in top-ranked scientific journals such as Progress in Materials Science, Materials Today, Advanced Functional Materials, ACS Nano, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Small, Materials Horizons, Nanoscale Horizon, Nano-Micro Letters, and Carbon, with a total citation of 8000+ and an H-index of 45.