Multiscale Disordered Porous Fibers for Self-Sensing and Self-Cooling Integrated Smart Sportswear.

Abstract

Smart clothing has demonstrated potential applications in a wide range of wearable fields for human body monitoring and self-adaption. However, current wearable sensors often suffer from not seamlessly integrating with normal clothing, restricting sensing ability, and a negative wearing experience. Here, integrated smart clothing is fabricated by employing multiscale disordered porous elastic fibers as sensing units, which show the capability of inherently autonomous self-sensing (<i>i</i>.<i>e</i>., strain and temperature sensing) and self-cooling. The multiscale disordered porous structure of the fibers contributes to the high transparency of mid-infrared human body radiation and backscatter of visible light, which allows the microenvironment temperature between the skin and clothing to drop at least ∼2.5 °C compared with cotton fabrics. After the capillary-assisted adsorption of graphene inks, the modified porous fibers could also possess real-time strain and temperature-sensing capacities with a high gauge factor and thermal coefficient of resistance. As a proof of concept, the integrated smart sportswear achieved the measuring of body temperature, the tracking of large-scale limb movements, and the collection of subtle human physiological signals, along with the intrinsic self-cooling ability.