WIRELESS AND FLEXIBLE PIEZORESISTIVE PRESSURE SENSOR BASED ON MXENE-DECORATED ZIF-67/PAN HIERARCHICAL NANOCOMPOSITES INTEGRATED WITH PASSIVE RFID
Abstract
Existing flexible sensors often face inherent trade-offs between mechanical stability and signal linearity, compounded by the 'wiring bottleneck' that restricts mobility. This study presents a robust, flexible piezoresistive sensor based on a MXene-decorated ZIF-67/Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanocomposite, integrated with a passive Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag for battery-free wireless monitoring. By leveraging the high electrical conductivity of MXene (Ti3C2Tx), the hierarchical porous architecture of Metal-Organic Framework ZIF-67, and the mechanical compliance of PAN nanofibers, the sensor achieves a synergistic sensing architecture. Spectroscopic and porosity analyses confirmed the strong chemical coordination between ZIF-67 nodes and the PAN fiber matrix. This interaction constructs a stable hierarchical scaffold that effectively prevents irreversible MXene restacking, reducing the Relative Standard Deviation (RSD) of the response signal from >80% (pristine MXene) to ~15% at low pressures and <2% at higher pressures for the nanocomposite. The sensor demonstrated exceptional signal fidelity and superior durability, maintaining 92.4% of its initial response after 3,600 mechanical cycles and retaining 91.7% of its electrical conductivity after 30 days of ambient exposure. Furthermore, wireless strain data acquisition was successfully achieved using an Impinj Speedway R420 reader with a read range of 10 cm. While shorter than logistics tags, this range is optimized for secure, near-field personal health monitoring, utilizing Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) modulation. This work demonstrates the feasibility of integrating MOF-enhanced MXene composites with passive RFID technology, offering a scalable solution for reliable applications in wearable health devices and structural health monitoring (SHM).
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