Stretchable and Photothermal MXene/PAA Hydrogel in Strain Sensor for Wearable Human-Machine Interaction Electronics

Wearable human-machine interaction (HMI) is an advanced technology that realizes operations, collaborations, and interactions between human and machines in a co-located or coordinated way. As the core component of wearable HMI electronics, the flexible sensor is desirable to be intelligent, accurate, collaborative, and multifunctional for the feedback control. Here, the multifunctional MXene/polyacrylic acid (PAA) hydrogel is prepared by radical polymerization. As a flexible strain sensor, it exhibits high sensitivity (gauge factor ≈4.94), wide detection range (0–1081%) and stable signal output for 500 cycles. It can also monitor human movement and operate manipulator in real time, exhibiting great potential in wearable artificial intelligence and HMI. Furthermore, the MXene/PAA hydrogel shows photothermal conversion performance with controllable surface temperature regulation ability (RT ≈67 °C) under near-infrared radiation. This work sheds a new light to develop the collaborative and multifunction wearable HMI electronics through integrating the flexible sensor with personal thermal management system.