Highly Robust and Multimodal PVA/Aramid Nanofiber/MXene Organogel Sensors for Advanced Human-Machine Interfaces

Flexible and wearable electronics require soft sensing materials that balance mechanical compliance, stable signal transduction, and durability for human-machine interfaces (HMIs). To address the limitations of single-filler systems, we propose a poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)/aramid nanofiber (ANF)/MXene organogel (PAM) as a multifunctional soft platform. This design integrates a PVA physically crosslinked network with ANF for mechanical reinforcement and MXene for electrical functionality. The optimized PAM composite exhibits outstanding mechanical properties, including a fracture stress of 2931 kPa, a fracture strain of 676%, and a fracture toughness of 9.04 MJ m^-3. Importantly, PAM serves as a single material platform configurable into three sensing modalities. The resistive strain sensor achieves a gauge factor of 3.1 over 10-100% strain and enables the reliable recognition of human joint movements and gestures. The capacitive pressure sensor delivers a sensitivity of 0.298 kPa^-1, rapid response/recovery times of 30/10 ms, and is integrated with a wireless module to control a smart car. Furthermore, the PAM-based triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) delivers excellent electrical outputs (V_oc = 123 V, I_sc = 0.52 μA, Q_sc = 58 nC) and functions as a self-powered smart handwriting pad, achieving a machine-learning-based recognition accuracy of 97.6%. This work demonstrates the immense potential of the PAM organogel for advanced, self-powered HMIs.