Integrating MXene waste materials into value-added products for smart wearable self-powered healthcare monitoring
Junlin Ma, Kai Yang, Yu Jiang, Liuxue Shen, Hongting Ma, Zewei Cui, Yuhang Du, Jiabao Lin, Junshan Liu, Nan Zhu
Abstract
MXenes have gained significant attention for development of flexible or wearable electronics. However, intrinsic sediment waste from the MXene production process is usually discarded, greatly decreasing efficiency. Rational use of MXene waste (trash) in wearables may improve economic benefits. Here, a strategy that integrates MXene nanosheets (treasure) with sediment trash is employed to construct a smart wearable self-powered health monitoring system. A flexible solid-state supercapacitor (FSSC) consisting of a robust MXene/polyamide (MX-PA) film delivers good specific capacitance and mechanical properties. An MXene trash-based pressure sensor realizes effective monitoring of physiological signals. By integrating the FSSC and pressure sensor, the self-powered smart system can remotely receive physiological feedback for evaluating human health status. This work explores a feasible strategy to take full advantage of MXene starting materials and may expand scalable fabrication of MXene-based smart wearables in healthcare fields.