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All VN-graphene architecture derived self-powered wearable sensors for ultrasensitive health monitoring

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Abstract

The booming of wearable electronics has nourished the progress on developing multifunctional energy storage systems with versatile flexibility, which enable the continuous and steady power supply even under various deformed states. In this sense, the synergy of flexible energy and electronic devices to construct integrative wearable microsystems is meaningful but remains quite challenging by far. Herein, we devise an innovative supercapacitor/sensor integrative wearable device that is based upon our designed vanadium nitride-graphene (VN-G) architectures. Flexible quasi-solid-state VN-G supercapacitor with ultralight and binder-free features deliver a specific capacitance of ~ 53 F·g−1 with good cycle stability. On the other hand, VN-G derived pressure sensors fabricated throughout a spray-printing process also manifest favorably high sensitivity (40 kPa−1 at the range of 2–10 kPa), fast response time (~ 130 ms), perfect skin conformability, and outstanding stability under static and dynamic pressure conditions. In turn, their complementary unity into a self-powered wearable sensor enables the precise detection of physiological motions ranging from pulse rate to phonetic recognition, holding promise for in-practical health monitoring applications.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2016YFA0200103), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51702225, 21473119, 51675275, 51520105003, and 51432002), and Jiangsu Youth Science Foundation (BK20170336). L. H. Y., Y. Y. Y., Y. Z. S., Z. X., N. W., Z. N. T., L. Z., Z. F. L., and J. Y. S. acknowledge the support from Suzhou Key Laboratory for Advanced Carbon Materials and Wearable Energy Technologies, Suzhou, China. J. Y. S. acknowledges the support from the Thousand Youth Talents Plan of China.

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  1. Lianghao Yu and Yuyang Yi contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Energy, Soochow Institute for Energy and Materials Innovations (SIEMIS), Key Laboratory of Advanced Carbon Materials and Wearable Energy Technologies of Jiangsu Province, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215006, China

    Lianghao Yu, Yuyang Yi, Yingze Song, Yiran Chen, Qiucheng Li, Zhou Xia, Nan Wei, Zhengnan Tian, Li Zhang, Zhongfan Liu & Jingyu Sun

  2. School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215006, China

    Ting Yao & Baoqing Nie

  3. Center for Nanochemistry (CNC), Beijing Science and Engineering Center for Nanocarbons, Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Zhongfan Liu

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  1. Lianghao Yu
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  2. Yuyang Yi
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  3. Ting Yao
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  4. Yingze Song
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  8. Nan Wei
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  11. Li Zhang
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Correspondence to Zhongfan Liu or Jingyu Sun.

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Yu, L., Yi, Y., Yao, T. et al. All VN-graphene architecture derived self-powered wearable sensors for ultrasensitive health monitoring. Nano Res. 12, 331–338 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-018-2219-1

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