Self-Poled Piezoelectric Nanocomposite Fiber Sensor for Wireless Monitoring of Physiological Signals

Self-powered sensors have the potential to enable real-time health monitoring without contributing to the ever-growing demand for energy. Piezoelectric nanogenerators (PENGs) respond to mechanical deformations to produce electrical signals, imparting sensing capability without external power sources. Textiles conform to the human body and serve as an interactive biomechanical energy harvesting and sensing medium without compromising comfort. However, the textile-based PENGs fabrication process is complex and lacks scalability, making these devices impractical for mass production. Here, we demonstrate the fabrication of long-length PENG fiber compatible with industrial-scale manufacturing. The thermal drawing process enables the one-step fabrication of self-poled MoS₂-PVDF nanocomposite fiber devices integrated with electrodes. Heat and stress during thermal drawing and MoS₂ nanoparticle addition facilitate interfacial polarization and dielectric modulation to enhance output performance. The fibers show 57% and 70% increase in output voltage and current compared to the pristine PVDF fiber, respectively, at considerably low MoS₂ loading of 3 wt%. The low Young’s modulus of outer cladding ensures effective stress transfer to the piezocomposite domain and allows minute motion detection. The flexible fibers demonstrate wireless, self-powered physiological sensing and biomotion analysis capability. The study aims to guide the large-scale production of highly sensitive integrated fibers to enable textile-based and plug-and-play wearable sensors.