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As wearable electronic devices have become commonplace in daily life, great advances in wearable strain sensors occurred in various fields including healthcare, robotics, virtual reality and other sectors. In this work, a highly stretchable and sensitive strain sensor based on electrospun styrene-ethylene-butene-styrene copolymer (SEBS) yarn modified by dopamine (DA) and coated with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) was reported. Due to the process of twisting, a strain senor stretched to a strain of 1095.8% while exhibiting a tensile strength was 20.03 MPa. The strain sensor obtained a gauge factor (GF of 1.13 × 105) at a maximum strain of 215%. Concurrently, it also possessed good stability, repeatability and durability under different strain ranges, stretching speeds and 15,000 stretching-releasing cycles. Additionally, the strain sensor exhibited robust washing fastness under an ultrasonic time of 120 min at 240 W and 50 Hz. Furthermore, it had a superior sensing performance in monitoring joint motions of the human body. The high sensitivity and motion sensing performance presented here demonstrate that PDA@SEBS/MWNCTs yarn has great potential to be used as components of wearable devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wind power generation is an environmentally friendly way to produce electricity, but wind turbine blades that are prone to freeze in winter will reduce the efficiency of the generator. Therefore, the preparation of anti-icing blades is important and essential. Herein, anti-icing polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)/heat-shrinkable polyvinyl chloride (HSPVC) composite film was prepared by depositing a PTFE coating on the surface of HSPVC film via vacuum thermal evaporation. HSPVC films were pretreated respectively by argon and carbon tetrafluoride (CF4) plasma cleaning to introduce new groups and change their surface energy. After that, PTFE coating with a thickness of about 4 μm was deposited on the surface of HSPVC, obtaining a superhydrophobic surface with an apparent water contact angle of 150°. The results demonstrated that the breaking strength of the PTFE/HSPVC composite film using CF4 plasma pretreatment decreased by only 3.47% after exposing to ultraviolet light with the power of 1000 W for 5 min, suggesting an excellent anti-ultraviolet property. Furthermore, compared with the pristine films, the PTFE/HSPVC composite films exhibited better adhesive strength, super anti-icing property even after 10 icing–deicing cycles, and excellent dynamic anti-icing performance. The PTFE/HSPVC composite film with good adhesive strength, anti-ultraviolet, and anti-icing properties has prospective applications in packaging of wind turbine blades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]