Stretchable Semi-Interpenetrating Carboxymethyl Guar Gum-Based Composite Hydrogel for Moisture-Proof Wearable Strain Sensor.

ABSTRACT

Wearable strain sensors of conductive hydrogels have very broad application prospects in electronic skins and human-machine interfaces. However, conductive hydrogels suffer from unstable signal transmission due to environmental humidity and inherent shortcomings of their materials. Herein, we introduce a novel moisture-proof conductive hydrogel with high toughness (2.89 MJ m-3), mechanical strength (1.00 MPa), and high moisture-proof sensing performance by using dopamine-functionalized gold nanoparticles as conductive fillers into carboxymethyl guar gum and acrylamide. Moreover, the hydrogel can realize real-time monitoring of major and subtle human movements with good sensitivity and repeatability. In addition, the hydrogel-assembled strain sensor exhibits stable sensing signals after being left for 1 h, and the relative resistance change rate under different strains (25-300%) shows no obvious noise signal up to 99% relative humidity. Notably, the wearable strain sensing is suitable for wearable sensor devices with high relative humidity.