Organic Crystal-MXene Composites as Temperature-Tolerant Strain Sensors

Flexible organic crystals offer significant opportunities for organic electronics; however, their potential applications in fields like flexible sensors are at present limited by poor charge transport that result in failure under reversible conditions. In this report, we propose a universal interfacing design strategy for the fabrication of versatile conductive MXene coatings on the surface of flexible organic crystals that preserve the electric conductivity of the MXenes while they also remain mechanically flexible and robust across a wide temperature range of nearly 300°C both above and below ambient temperature. This new sub-class of hybrid materials based on adaptive organic crystals undergoes reversible changes in the crystal structure upon deformation, while they also engender stable electrical conductivity and retain deformation sensitivity from about -196°C to 100°C. A wireless sensing system based on these materials was constructed to monitor bionic finger movements that demonstrate the potential for human-machine interfacing and medical monitoring applications. The structural stability of this and similar devices that utilize crystal-MXene hybrid materials under non-ambient temperatures provide an innovative solution to the current challenges with occasional failure of low-temperature mechanical sensing systems in extreme environments, and specifically such that are used in lunar and deep-space explorations.