An Ultra-Stretchable Sensitive Hydrogel Sensor for Human Motion and Pulse Monitoring

Ionic hydrogels with intrinsic conductivity and stretchability show great potential in flexible electronics. However, it remains a great challenge to achieve hydrogels with mechanical stretchability, ionic conductivity, optical transparency, and a self-healing ability at the same time. In this paper, we developed a hydroxyethylidene diphosphonic acid (HEDP) assisted poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) composite hydrogel to achieve high-performance stretch-sensitive sensor. Through a facile freeze–thaw strategy, the hydrogel could achieve large stretchability (up to 950% strain), good conductivity (10.88 S/m), excellent linear sensitivity (GF = 2.72, within 100% strain), high transparency, and significant self-healing ability. The PVA-HEDP hydrogel-based strain sensor is capable of monitoring various human movements from small scale (e.g., laryngeal vibration while speaking) to large scale (e.g., knee joint movement). Moreover, the multisite sensor array is capable of detecting the subtle differences between the pulse wave features from Cun, Guan and Chi positions, mimicking the three-finger palpation in Traditional Chinese Medicine. This work demonstrates that the composite hydrogel-based flexible sensor provides a promising solution for multifunctional human activities and health monitoring.