Durable and Wearable Self-powered Temperature Sensor Based on Self-healing Thermoelectric Fiber by Coaxial Wet Spinning Strategy for Fire Safety of Firefighting Clothing

Abstract

Self-healable electronics with self-recoverable mechanical properties show a lot of potential in improving the reliability and durability of wearable electronic devices, but it is still challenging. Herein, a self-healing core-sheath thermoelectric (TE) fiber-based temperature sensor was continuously fabricated by coaxial wet-spinning strategy, whose core layer and sheath layer are, respectively, pure Ti₃C₂T_x MXene and self-healing silk sericin (SS)/oxide sodium alginate (OSA) composite. The prepared SS/OSA@MXene core-sheath TE fiber exhibits accurate temperature-sensing at 200–400 °C based on a linear relationship between TE voltage and temperature difference. The core-sheath TE fiber that can be integrated into firefighting clothing and timely alert firefighters to evacuate from the fire before the protective clothing becomes damaged. When exposed to flames, SS/OSA@MXene can rapidly trigger a high-temperature warning voltage of 3.36 mV within 1.17 s and exhibit reversible high-temperature alarm performance. In addition, the fractured SS/OSA@MXene can restore up to 89.12% of its original strain limit at room temperature because of the robust yet reversible dynamic covalent bonds between SS and OSA. In this study, an ingenious strategy for developing a durable and wearable TE fiber-based self-powered temperature sensor was proposed. This strategy has promising application prospects in real-time temperature detection of firefighting clothing to ensure the safety of firefighters operating on a fire scene.

Graphical Abstract