Growing recyclable and healable piezoelectric composites in 3D printed bioinspired structure for protective wearable sensor

This paper presents a strategy to grow recyclable and healable piezoelectric Rochelle salt crystals in 3D-printed cuttlebone-inspired structures to create a composite for reinforced smart monitoring devices. The composite exhibits remarkable mechanical and piezoelectric performance, with studies exploring its growth mechanisms, recyclability, sensitivity, and repairability. Applications as smart sensor armor for football players and fall alarm knee pads are demonstrated, highlighting the integrated mechanical reinforcement and electrical self-sensing capabilities for impact force data collection.

Qingqing He, Yushun Zeng, Laiming Jiang, Ziyu Wang, Gengxi Lu, Haochen Kang, Pei Li, Brandon Bethers, Shengwei Feng, Lizhi Sun, Peter Sun, Chen Gong, Jie Jin, Yue Hou, Runjian Jiang, Wenwu Xu, Eugene Olevsky, Yang Yang