Series of Advances in Specialized Flexible Sensing by NPU Huang Wei and Wang Xuewen

Specialty Electronics refer to high-reliability, unconventional flexible electronic materials, devices, and systems designed for applications in extreme environments such as aviation, aerospace, maritime, polar regions, and high-altitude plateaus. Specialty Flexible Sensing Technology is a key approach that integrates flexible electronics with specialized sensing principles. It overcomes the limitations of conventional flexible sensing technologies in extreme conditions, enabling reliable acquisition and perception of multi-dimensional information. This technology provides core support for intelligent monitoring and precise control in extreme scenarios.

Recently, the research team led by Academician Huang Wei and Professor Wang Xuewen at Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU) has made a series of breakthroughs in specialty flexible sensing. Addressing key challenges such as the narrow temperature tolerance and low strain sensitivity of flexible strain sensors, the team developed a printable high-temperature-resistant medium-entropy alloy ink based on single-phase Nb-Mo-W solid solution materials. They also proposed an innovative in-situ heterogeneous printing manufacturing technology, enabling the direct fabrication of high-performance flexible sensors on surfaces of any material. The developed flexible sensor successfully break through operating temperature limits,revolutionizing the long-held industry belief that "flexible sensors cannot operate stably in high-temperature environments." It also demonstrated exceptional performance in key metrics, exhibiting a strain sensitivity (gauge factor) over two orders of magnitude higher than traditional metal-based and ceramic-based (non-flexible) sensors across an ultra-broad temperature range of -150°C to 1100°C. The team discovered that the key to this achievement lies in a cross-scale synergistic mechanism unique to medium-entropy alloys, involving lattice distortion, nanoparticle spacing modulation, and thin-film stress concentration. Based on this breakthrough, the team validated the sensor's capability for real-time, stable monitoring of morphing aircraft attitude and configuration in extreme temperatures. The related findings were published in Nature Communications (Nat. Commun., 2025, 16, 7351).

To tackle challenges like poor high-temperature stability and slow response speed in flexible sensors, the team proposed an alloying and multi-interface fusion strategy. Using inkjet printing and hydrogen-assisted thermal annealing processes, they directly fabricated specialty flexible temperature sensors based on two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide (2D TMD) alloy thin films on flexible substrates. These sensors achieved stable and transient responses to temperature changes from -253°C to 800°C, with response times as low as microseconds (Research, 2024, 7, 0452). Building on this, the team employed laser direct writing to prepare 2D TMD alloy thin films, revealing the thermal decomposition and in-situ growth mechanisms of the 2D materials. This enabled the controllable fabrication of high-performance flexible strain sensors, which were validated for detecting high-frequency vibration signals at 500°C (Microsyst. Nanoeng., 2025, 11, 161). Furthermore, using the amphoteric surfactant cocamidopropyl betaine (CAB) as a dispersant, the team developed fully printed multifunctional flexible sensors based on 2D material architectures (Science China Materials, 2025, 10.1007/s40843-025-3470-6). To further突破 the performance limits of flexible strain sensors, the team innovatively proposed an interface enhancement effect based on a zebra stripe structure, significantly improving the sensitivity of flexible bending sensors. Through array integration, they successfully demonstrated the precise reconstruction of 3D strain distribution and bending morphology of planar structures using specialty flexible sensors (ACS Sensors, 2025, 10, 4896). These series of achievements provide solid technical support for advancing the application of flexible electronics in aerospace, high-end manufacturing, extreme environment monitoring, and other fields.

Specialty Flexible Strain, Temperature, Pressure Sensors and Sensor Arrays

The above work was supported by funding from the National Key R&D Program of China, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, and the Open Fund of the Analytical & Testing Center of Northwestern Polytechnical University.

In recent years, the research team has focused on specialty flexible sensing materials and devices, publishing over 80 papers in internationally renowned journals such as Nature Communications (3 papers), Advanced Materials (9 papers), Journal of the American Chemical Society (2 papers), and Research (3 papers), which have been cited over 10,000 times by peers. They have been granted 15 Chinese invention patents and 1 U.S. patent. The team is dedicated to the field of "Specialty Electronics," continuously exploring new approaches for talent cultivation in the emerging interdisciplinary field of "Flexible Electronics," investigating the application boundaries of specialty flexible sensing under extreme conditions, and seeking intelligent strategies for flexible electronics to serve major national applications.