With the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence, multimodal sensing is becoming increasingly important. However, conventional approaches relying on multiple integrated sensors face significant challenges due to power consumption and miniaturization requirements. In response, a wearable multimodal sensory textile (MST) for simultaneous mechanical and thermal sensing is developed. The MST demonstrates exceptional capabilities for concurrent mechanical and thermal tactile sensing, with a pressure sensitivity of 0.9 V N-1 and temperature sensitivity of 38.7 pA K-1. This outstanding sensing performance is attributed to the mechanical and thermal reinforcement of the programmable ferroelectric nanocomposite enabled by topological engineering. By combining phase-field simulation with experimental characterization, it is revealed that the alignment of ceramic fillers not only promotes spontaneous polarization and out-of-plane domain fraction under external poling but also establishes bimodal pathways for efficient stress and heat transmission. The programmable arrangement and orientation of ferroelectric oxide fillers, achieved by tuning dielectrophoretic voltage, frequency, and temperature, boost piezoelectric and pyroelectric responses by 114% and 131%, respectively, compared to randomly distributed counterparts. This work offers insights into the underlying mechanism of topological modulation in polymer composites and provides new possibilities for designing high-performance functional materials for multimodal sensing, as well as self-powered multimodal sensors for human-machine interfaces and virtual reality.
Li et al. (2025) studied this question.