skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Explore Research Products in the PAR
It may take a few hours for recently added research products to appear in PAR search results.


  • NSF Public Access
  • Search Results
  • Bioinspired Durable Mechanical‐Bioelectrical Dual‐Modal Sensors Enabled by Mixed Ion‐Electron Conduction and Mechanical Interlocking for Multifunctional Sensing

This content will become publicly available on August 1, 2026

Title: Bioinspired Durable Mechanical‐Bioelectrical Dual‐Modal Sensors Enabled by Mixed Ion‐Electron Conduction and Mechanical Interlocking for Multifunctional Sensing
Abstract Skin‐like robust materials with prominent sensing performance have potential applications in flexible bioelectronics. However, it remains challenging to achieve mutually exclusive properties simultaneously including low interfacial impedance, high stretchability, sensitivity, and electrical resilience. Herein, a material and structure design concept of mixed ion‐electron conduction and mechanical interlocking structure is adopted to fabricate high‐performance mechanical‐bioelectrical dual‐modal composites with large stretchability, excellent mechanoelectrical stability, low interfacial impedance, and good biocompatibility. Flower‐like conductive metal‐organic frameworks (cMOFs) with enhanced conductivity through the overlapped level of metal‐ligand orbital are assembled, which bridge carbon nanotubes (denoted as cMOFs‐b‐CNTs). Then, precursor of poly(styrene‐block‐butadiene‐block‐styrene)/ionic liquid penetrates the pores and cavities in cMOFs‐b‐CNTs‐based network fabricated via filtration process, creating a semi‐embedded structure via mechanical interlocking. Thus, the mixed ion‐electron conduction and semi‐embedded structure endow the as‐prepared composites with a low interfacial impedance (51.60/28.90 kΩ at 10/100 Hz), wide sensing range (473%), high sensitivity (2195.29), rapid response/recovery time (60/85 ms), low limit of detection (0.05%), and excellent durability (>5000 cycles to 50% strain). Demonstrations of multifunctional mechanical‐bioelectrical dual‐modal sensors for in vivo/vitro monitoring physiological motions, electrophysiological activities, and urinary bladder activities validate the possibility for practical uses in biomedical research areas. This concept creates opportunities for the construction of durable skin‐like sensing materials.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2319139
PAR ID:
10632195
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
Wiley
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Advanced Functional Materials
Volume:
35
Issue:
32
ISSN:
1616-301X
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. ; ; (, Composites science and technology)
    null (Ed.)
    Aramid fiber reinforced polymer composites have been shown to exhibit impressive mechanical properties, including high strength-to-weight ratio, excellent abrasion resistance, and exceptional ballistic performance. For these reasons, aramid composites have been heavily used in high impact loading environments where ballistic properties are vital. In-situ damage monitoring of aramid composites under dynamic loading conditions typically requires externally bonded sensors, which add bulk and are limited by size and space constraints. To overcome these limitations, this work presents a piezoresistive laser induced graphene (LIG) interface for embedded impact sensing in aramid fiber reinforced composites. Through the monitoring of electrical impedance during ballistic impact, information regarding time and severity of the impact is obtained. The impact velocity correlates with the impedance change of the composites, due to delamination between aramid plies and damage to the LIG interface. The delamination length in Mode I specimens also correlates to changes in electrical impedance of the composite. The interlaminar fracture toughness and areal-density-specific V50 of the LIG aramid composites increased relative to untreated aramid composites. This work demonstrates a methodology to form multifunctional aramid-based composites with a LIG interface that provides both improved toughness and imbedded sensing of impact and damage severity during ballistic impact. 
    more » « less
  2. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; (, Advanced Functional Materials)
    Abstract Solid polymer electrolytes for lithium batteries promise improvements in safety and energy density if their conductivity can be increased. Nanostructured block‐copolymer electrolytes specifically have the potential to provide both good ionic conductivity and good mechanical properties. This study shows that the previously neglected nanoscale composition of the polymer electrolyte close to the electrode surface has an important effect on impedance measurements, despite its negligible extent compared to the bulk electrolyte. Using standard stainless steel blocking electrodes, the impedance of lithium salt‐doped poly(isoprene‐b‐styrene‐b‐ethylene oxide) (ISO) exhibits a marked decrease upon thermal processing of the electrolyte. In contrast, covering the electrode surface with a low molecular weight poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) brush results in higher and more reproducible conductivity values, which are insensitive to the thermal history of the device. A qualitative model of this effect is based on the hypothesis that ISO surface reconstruction at the different electrode surfaces leads to a change in the electrostatic double layer, affecting electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements. As a main result, PEO‐brush modification of electrode surfaces is beneficial for the robust electrolyte performance of PEO‐containing block‐copolymers and may be crucial for their accurate characterization and use in Li‐ion batteries. 
    more » « less
  3. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; et al (, Advanced Materials)
    Abstract Polymer composites with electrically conductive fillers have been developed as mechanically flexible, easily processable electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding materials. Although there are a few elastomeric composites with nanostructured silvers and carbon nanotubes showing moderate stretchability, their EMI shielding effectiveness (SE) deteriorates consistently with stretching. Here, a highly stretchable polymer composite embedded with a three‐dimensional (3D) liquid‐metal (LM) network exhibiting substantial increases of EMI SE when stretched is reported, which matches the EMI SE of metallic plates over an exceptionally broad frequency range of 2.65–40 GHz. The electrical conductivities achieved in the 3D LM composite are among the state‐of‐the‐art in stretchable conductors under large mechanical deformations. With skin‐like elastic compliance and toughness, the material provides a route to meet the demands for emerging soft and human‐friendly electronics. 
    more » « less
  4. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; (, Small Methods)
    Abstract The cost‐effective and scalable synthesis and patterning of soft nanomaterial composites with improved electrical conductivity and mechanical stretchability remains challenging in wearable devices. This work reports a scalable, low‐cost fabrication approach to directly create and pattern crumpled porous graphene/NiS2nanocomposites with high mechanical stretchability and electrical conductivity through laser irradiation combined with electrodeposition and a pre‐strain strategy. With modulated mechanical stretchability and electrical conductivity, the crumpled graphene/NiS2nanocomposite can be readily patterned into target geometries for application in a standalone stretchable sensing platform. By leveraging the electrical energy harvested from the kinetic motion from wearable triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) and stored in micro‐supercapacitor arrays (MSCAs) to drive biophysical sensors, the system is demonstrated to monitor human motions, body temperature, and toxic gas in the exposed environment. The material selections, design strategies, and fabrication approaches from this study provide functional nanomaterial composites with tunable properties for future high‐performance bio‐integrated electronics. 
    more » « less
  5. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; (, Advanced Functional Materials)
    Abstract Ultrasound is a safe, noninvasive diagnostic technique used to measure internal structures such as tissues, organs, and arterial and venous blood flow. Skin‐mounted wearable ultrasound devices can enable long‐term continuous monitoring of patients to provide solutions to critical healthcare needs. However, stretchable ultrasound devices that are composed of ultrasonic transducers embedded in an elastomer matrix are incompatible with existing rigid acoustic matching layers, leading to reduced energy transmission and reduced imaging resolution. Here, a systematic study of soft composites with liquid metal (LM) fillers dispersed in elastomers reveals key strategies to tune the acoustic impedance of soft materials. Experiments supported by theoretical models demonstrate that the increase in acoustic impedance is primarily driven by the increase in density with negligible changes to the speed of sound through the material. By controlling the volume loading and particle size of the LM fillers, a material is created that achieves a high acoustic impedance 4.8 Mrayl, (> 440% increase over the polymer matrix) with low modulus (< 1 MPa) and high stretchability (> 100% strain). When the device is mechanically strained, a small decrease is observed in acoustic impedance (< 15%) with negligible decrease in sound transmittance and impact on attenuation for all droplet sizes. The stretchable acoustic matching layer is then integrated with a wearable ultrasound device and the ability to measure motion is demonstrated using a phantom model as is performed in Doppler ultrasound. 
    more » « less
  • Citation Formats
  • MLA
  • APA
  • Chicago
  • BibTeX
  • Save / Share this Record
  • Send to Email