FLEXIBLE ELECTRONICS: SELF-POWERED SENSORS & ACTUATORS

Creating Sensors and Actuators with Self-Powered Features

RESEARCH GROUP INTRODUCTION

Our research group is a highly interdisciplinary research team devoted to exploiting interesting characteristics of self-powered materials and structures, including electroactive and conducting soft polymers, by making them into advanced sensors and actuators. We aim to incorporate them with Industry 4.0 technology in performing more complex applications. Some examples of our outcome include AI-assisted self-powering wearable sensors that can perform human body physiological monitoring and wireless-powered soft actuators that offer remote drug delivery accountability.

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Back Cover in FlexMat

A single laser beam unlocks a sustainable pathway to next-generation wearable energy storage. By directly writing oxygen-tuned graphene onto Kevlar textiles, we demonstrate a rapid, chemical-free approach to fabricate flexible supercapacitors with high capacitance, durability, and bending stability. This one-step laser method delicates the balance between graphitization and oxygen groups, enhancing ion adsorption and electrochemical performance. Beyond supercapacitors, the technique provides a scalable and versatile platform for producing graphene tailored to applications including batteries and sensors. This work showcases how laser engineering rapidly transforms textiles into multifunctional, eco-friendly, and energy-integrated fabrics. For more details, see https://doi.org/10.1002/flm2.70001.

Featured in THE STAR- Newspaper

A smartwatch, which can read one’s heart rate and track other physiological metrics, is not categorised as a ‘conformer’ wearable. Wearing it to sleep takes some getting used to, for instance.

“We want to solve this rigidness and improve patient experience and make it more suited to long-term wear,” says UTAR associate professor of mechatronics and biomedical engineering Dr Chee Pei Song.

“Conformer wearables are, for example, shirts and comfortable patches that you can wear and have it conform to your body.” For more details, see https://www.thestar.com.my/news/focus/2024/07/14/living-the-metal-life

Featured in What's Hot in Antennas and Propagation? - IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation

Our work "Frequency Reconfigurable Smart Antenna With Integrated Electroactive Polymer for Far-Field Communication" received top-accessed paper in IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation. Here, the IPMC movable flap serves as an actuator that can effectively tune the tag resonant frequency. By applying a two-layer-crenelated structure and employing a surface patterned electrode for restraining back relaxation, the deflection of the IPMC actuator can be significantly improved. The IPMC actuator can move in two directions, enabling two-degree frequency tuning. Read the full paper at: https://lnkd.in/guxRYDYC

RESEARCH PROJECT

1. Wireless Powered/Sensing Soft Actuators/Sensor

Wireless Powered drug delivery

We reports a wirelessly powered ionic polymer-metal composite (IPMC) soft actuator operated by external radio frequency (RF) magnetic fields for targeted drug delivery. A proof-of-concept release of the drug cisplatin from the fabricated prototype shows the successful decrease of cell viability of HeLa cells with RF turned on. - Published in Lab on a Chip, 2018

Wireless Powered IPMC Gripper

The wireless powered feature is extended to control a soft gripper that is made from the same IPMC material. The soft gripper successfully gripped the fish egg sample without any damages under wireless activation. - Published in Smart Materials and Structures， 2018.

2. Self-powered Sensors

Piezoionic Effect

The self-powered IPMC sensor was able to distinguish different pressures exerted by throat movements. An optimized SVM model was developed and able to recognize coughing, humming, swallowing, and nodding actions at a high accuracy of 95%. The enhanced intelligence of the IPMC sensor can be further applied to the internet of things (IoT) in a human–machine interaction platform for an improved human lifestyle. - Published in Polymers， 2021.

Triboelectric Effect

A wearable and stretchable self-powered pressure sensor is proposed based on the microfluidic triboelectric principle. The microfluidic platform enables electrification during the solid–liquid interaction, eliminating the need of a larger separation distance for the contact separation mode.The pressure sensor can function as a touch sensor to control light illumination and gaming interaction with a data acquisition unit. - Published in Smart Materials and Structures，2021.

The Research are Funded by:

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