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Updated: May 28, 2026
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Conformable Wearable Electrodes: From Fabrication to Electrophysiological Assessment
Published on: July 22, 2022
A Sodium Titanate-Based Flexible Sensor with Accurate Human Motion Perception and Dyeability
Zehui Dong1, Haonan Meng1, Zhenyu Cheng1
1Key Laboratory of Special Protective Textiles, Ministry of Education, College of Textile Science and Engineering, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China.
ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
|May 26, 2026
Summary
New light-colored, dyeable conductive fibers were developed for wearable electronics. These flexible materials offer high performance and aesthetics, enabling advanced biomedical monitoring and smart textiles.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Textile Engineering
- Wearable Technology
Background:
- Flexible conductive sensing materials are crucial for wearable electronics, smart textiles, and biomedical monitoring.
- Conventional materials like carbon-based or polyaniline-based options are often dark and poorly dyeable, limiting their aesthetic appeal and application range.
- There is a growing demand for high-performance, light-colored, and dyeable conductive materials that overcome these limitations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop novel light-colored, dyeable flexible conductive sensing materials.
- To address the functionality-aesthetics trade-off in conductive materials for wearable applications.
- To create a cost-effective and simplified fabrication process for these advanced materials.
Main Methods:
- Fabrication of light-colored ATO@Na2Ti6O13/PU fibers via wet spinning and films via electrospinning.
- Synthesis of Na2Ti6O13 whiskers (TiO2 intermediates) through one-step calcination of TiO2 with NaCl/Na2CO3.
- Characterization of material properties including color, dyeability, electrical conductivity, mechanical strength, response times, and cyclic stability.
Main Results:
- The fabricated ATO@Na2Ti6O13/PU fibers/films exhibit a light color with high whiteness (up to 85) and excellent dyeability and color fastness (rubbing ≥ grade 3, washing ≥ grade 4).
- The conductive fibers (20 wt% filler) demonstrated impressive electrical conductivity (~903.5 Ω·cm), mechanical properties (~3500 kPa breaking stress, ~410% elongation at break), and rapid response/recovery times (0.3 s/0.3 s).
- The materials showed excellent cyclic stability, enduring 4000 s of cycling under 250% strain.
Conclusions:
- The developed light-colored, dyeable conductive fibers and films successfully resolve the functionality-aesthetics trade-off for wearable electronic applications.
- These materials are suitable for integration into wearable sensors capable of accurately capturing human movements, finger motions, and vocalization-related muscle stretching.
- The cost-effective and simplified synthesis method makes these advanced conductive materials highly promising for future commercialization.
