Water-Tolerant MXene Epidermal Sensors with High Sensitivity and Reliability for Healthcare Monitoring

Flexible and wearable pressure sensors have gained great popularity in consumer electronics due to their potential applications in human healthcare, E-skin, and artificial intelligence interactions. MXene is regarded as one of the most ideal candidate sensing materials due to its high electrical conductivity and controllable interlayer space. However, the easy-to-oxidize characteristic of MXene materials greatly restricts the sensitivity and reliability of sensor devices, especially in wet climates. Herein, a highly sensitive and waterproof flexible pressure sensor using a free-standing hydrophobic bacterial cellulose/Ti3C2Tx MXene (HBT) hybrid film as a sensing layer is fabricated by facile and effective nanocellulose intercalation and fluorine modification strategies. The obtained pressure sensor delivers high sensitivity (65.5 kPa-1), fast response (50 ms), wide linear sensing range (0.002-30 kPa) with a low detection limit of 0.57 Pa, and excellent repeatability over 50,000 cycles. Meanwhile, owing to the highly hydrophobic surface of the HTB film, the outstanding sensing features could be well retained, although immersed in water several times. Benefiting from the excellent sensing properties and water resistance, the HBT sensor serves as a wearable force sensor to monitor the full-range human physiological motions regardless of whether the conditions are normal or wet. This work provides a new pathway to design the MXene pressure sensor with high reliability and demonstrates the promising usage of HBT sensors in portable biomedical electronics.

Automated summary

This study presents a highly sensitive and waterproof flexible pressure sensor using a free-standing hydrophobic bacterial cellulose/Ti3C2Tx MXene (HBT) hybrid film as a sensing layer. The sensor exhibits high sensitivity, fast response, wide linear sensing range, low detection limit, and excellent repeatability, while maintaining outstanding sensing features even after being immersed in water multiple times.