A Self-Powered Wearable Pressure Sensor and Pyroelectric Breathing Sensor Based on GO Interfaced PVDF Nanofibers

This paper reports a self-powered, flexible, piezo- and pyro-electric hybrid nanogenerator (NG) device that can be fixed on different locations of human skin for detecting static and dynamic pressure variations and can also monitor temperature fluctuations during the respiration process. An efficient and cost-effective fabrication strategy has been developed to create electrospun poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)/graphene oxide (GO) nanofibers, which are used to create a highly sensitive wearable pressure sensor and pyroelectric breathing sensor. The sensor can accurately and rapidly detect pressures as low as 10 Pa with a high sensitivity (4.3 V/kPa), a key performance indicator for wearable sensors. Importantly, the sensor exhibits a high sensitivity to bending and stretching by finger, wrist, and elbow. The pressure sensor is also highly sensitive to vocal vibrations when attached to the human throat. The device can generate a maximum output power density of ∼6.2 mW/m2 when subjected to a compressive stress, which enhances its range of applications. Moreover, it is demonstrated that doping with GO improves the pyroelectric energy harvesting and sensing performance of the device under repeated temperature fluctuations. The PVDF/GO-based nanogenerator has a maximum pyroelectric output power density of ∼1.2 nW/m2 and can sense temperature changes during respiration, which makes it promising as a pyroelectric breathing sensor. It is demonstrated that processing of the PVDF-GO self-powered multifunctional pressure and pyroelectric breathing sensor can be up-scaled for fabricating compact and high-performance electronic skins for application in health monitoring, motion detection, and portable electronics.