Electrospun Micro/Nanofiber with Various Structures and Functions for Wearable Physical Sensors

Abstract With the increasing interest in monitoring health and rapid growth in technology of electronic devices, personal wearable electronics have attracted extensive attention in the recent years. By integrating wearable electronic devices into clothing, accessories, electronic skin products, real-time monitoring and diagnosis of human movement and physiological conditions can be realized. In particular, electrospun micro/nanofibers (MNFs) have the benefits of good breathability, low cost and light weight, owing to their high specific surface area and flexible characteristics making them convenient for wearable devices. In this review, we summarized the existing technologies for synthesizing electrospun MNFs, and classified the materials for preparing wearable physical sensors. Besides the performance and functions of MNFs-based physical sensors; the structure, arrangement and post-treatment of electrospun MNFs have also been described in detail. The operating mechanisms of MNFs-based physical sensors mainly including piezoresistive, piezoelectric, capacitive, triboelectric, thermal-resistive and pyroelectric sensors were briefly discussed, and the typical wearable physical sensory applications based on electrospun MNFs were demonstrated as well.