Screen-Printing of Carbons/Conductive Polymer Composite Inks for Smart Glove with High-Performance Textile Sensors

Flexible strain sensor-based smart textiles have promising applications in wearable devices. However, most existing smart textiles suffer from complex fabrication processes and inadequate control over the patterning and uniform deposition of conductive materials, which significantly hinder their commercialization. Herein, we propose a ternary composite ink system (graphene nanoplatelets/carbon black/PEDOT:PSS , G-C-P ink) by utilizing the synergistic effect of three different conductive components. This system exhibits superior rheological properties, enabling uniform deposition of patterned sensors on textile substrates through high-resolution screen printing. The synergistic interplay of ternary conductive materials overcomes the limitations of single/dual materials and endows the strain sensors with ultrahigh sensitivity (gauge factor = 1628 at 155-200% strain), broad working range (0-200% strain), and robust durability (>5000 cycles). Furthermore, stretchable interconnects based on silver fractal dendrites were integrated to extend the sensor array. Both sensors and interconnects were directly screen-printed onto the textile, achieving seamless compatibility with industrial textile manufacturing processes. Integration with printed circuit boards enabled a smart textile glove, demonstrating promising applications in gesture recognition and object-grasping recognition. This work establishes a scalable manufacturing paradigm for high-performance smart textiles and provides new possibilities for the commercialization of smart wearable textile systems.