Extraction and incorporation of cellulose microfibers from textile wastes into MXene-enhanced PVA-borax hydrogel for multifunctional wearable sensors

Md Zahid Hasan; Chuanghua Xu; K Z M Abdul Motaleb; Md Foysal Ahmed; Jie Zhuang; Sirui Tan; Jolanta Janutėnienė; M Mahbubul Bashar; Hu Tu; Lei Luo; Ruquan Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2025.139640

Extraction and incorporation of cellulose microfibers from textile wastes into MXene-enhanced PVA-borax hydrogel for multifunctional wearable sensors

Int J Biol Macromol. 2025 Jan 7:295:139640. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2025.139640. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of New Textile Materials and Advanced Processing Technologies, School of Textile Science and Engineering, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan 430200, China; Department of Apparel Merchandising & Management, BGMEA University of Fashion & Technology, Dhaka 1230, Bangladesh.
² State Key Laboratory of New Textile Materials and Advanced Processing Technologies, School of Textile Science and Engineering, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan 430200, China.
³ Department of Engineering, Faculty of Marine Technologies and Natural Sciences, Klaipeda University, Klaipėda 91224, Lithuania.
⁴ Department of Textile Engineering, Mawlana Bhashani Science and Technology University, Tangail 1902, Bangladesh.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of New Textile Materials and Advanced Processing Technologies, School of Textile Science and Engineering, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan 430200, China. Electronic address: leiluo@wtu.edu.cn.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of New Textile Materials and Advanced Processing Technologies, School of Textile Science and Engineering, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan 430200, China. Electronic address: zhangruquan@wtu.edu.cn.

PMID: 39788271
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2025.139640

Abstract

Conductive hydrogel has drawn great concern in wearable sensors, human-machine interfaces, artificial intelligence (AI), health monitoring, et al. But it still remains challenge to develop hydrogel through facile and sustainable methods. In this work, a conductive, flexible, bendable and self-healing hydrogel (PBCM) composed of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), borax, cellulose microfibers (CMFs) and MXene nanosheets was fabricated by a simple and efficient strategy. The carboxylated CMFs were extracted from waste ramie fibers via a one-pot ammonium persulfate oxidation method. The crystallinity and tensile strength were increased 70 % and 4 times due to the addition of CMFs and MXene compared to the pristine PVA-borax hydrogel. The incorporation of MXene nanosheets acts as multifunctional cross-linkers and energy transfer platform, promoting the electrical conductivity, stretchability and bendability of hydrogel remarkably. The PBCM-2 hydrogel exhibited the maximum electrical conductivity of 0.81 S/cm. Additionally, the dynamic borate ester linkage imparts self-healing ability to the hydrogel. The resulting PBCM-2 hydrogel demonstrated excellent resistance to fire and pH response properties. Moreover, it showed sensitivity in monitoring various human physiological movements, including finger, wrist, elbow, knee bending and drinking water, indicating its potential for wearable sensing applications like health care and sports training.

Keywords: Cellulose microfibers; Hydrogel; Wearable sensor.