Self-Poled Piezoelectric Nanocomposite Fiber Sensors for Wireless Monitoring of Physiological Signals

Abstract

Self-powered sensors have the potential to enable real-time health monitoring without contributing to the ever-growing demand for energy. Piezoelectric nanogenerators (PENGs) respond to mechanical deformations to produce electrical signals, imparting a sensing capability without external power sources. Textiles conform to the human body and serve as an interactive biomechanical energy harvesting and sensing medium without compromising comfort. However, the textile-based PENG fabrication process is complex and lacks scalability, making these devices impractical for mass production. Here, we demonstrate the fabrication of a long-length PENG fiber compatible with industrial-scale manufacturing. The thermal drawing process enables the one-step fabrication of self-poled MoS₂-poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) nanocomposite fiber devices integrated with electrodes. Heat and stress during thermal drawing and MoS₂ nanoparticle addition facilitate interfacial polarization and dielectric modulation to enhance the output performance. The fibers show a 57 and 70% increase in the output voltage and current compared to the pristine PVDF fiber, respectively, at a considerably low MoS₂ loading of 3 wt %. The low Young's modulus of the outer cladding ensures an effective stress transfer to the piezocomposite domain and allows minute motion detection. The flexible fibers demonstrate wireless, self-powered physiological sensing and biomotion analysis capability. The study aims to guide the large-scale production of highly sensitive integrated fibers to enable textile-based and plug-and-play wearable sensors.