Wide Range Strain Distributions on the Electrode for Highly Sensitive Flexible Tactile Sensor with Low Hysteresis

Wide Range Strain Distributions on the Electrode for Highly Sensitive Flexible Tactile Sensor with Low Hysteresis

ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces

10.1021/acsami.2c21241

http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsami.2c21241

Cuiyuan Liang, Jingqi Sun, Zhihua Liu, Gongwei Tian, Yan Liu, Qinyi Zhao, Dan Yang, Jianhui Chen, Bowen Zhong, Ming Zhu, Hongbo Xu, Dianpeng Qi

sensor, pyramid, two conductive paths, health monitoring, human–machine interaction

21 March 2023

Liang, C., Sun, J., Liu, Z., Tian, G., Liu, Y., Zhao, Q., Yang, D., Chen, J., Zhong, B., Zhu, M., Xu, H., & Qi, D. (2023). Wide Range Strain Distributions on the Electrode for Highly Sensitive Flexible Tactile Sensor with Low Hysteresis. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 15(12), 15096–15107. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.2c21241

Flexible piezoresistive tactile sensors are widely used in wearable electronic devices because of their ability to detect mechanical stimuli. However, achieving high sensitivity and low hysteresis over a broad detection range remains a challenge with current piezoresistive tactile sensors. To address these obstacles, we designed elastomeric micropyramid arrays with different heights to redistribute the strain on the electrode. Furthermore, we mixed single-walled carbon nanotubes in the elastomeric micropyramids to compensate for the conductivity loss caused by random cracks in the gold film and increase the adhesion strength between the gold film (deposited on the pyramid surface) and the elastomer. Thus, the energy loss of the sensor during deformation and the hysteresis (~2.52%) were effectively reduced. Therefore, under the synactic effects of the percolation effect, tunnel effect, and multistage strain distribution, the as-prepared sensor exhibited a high sensitivity (1.28 × 106 kPa−1) and a broad detection range (4.51–54837.06 Pa). The sensitivity was considerably higher than those of most flexible pressure sensors with a microstructure design. As a proof of concept, the sensors were successfully applied in the fields of health monitoring and human–machine interaction.

Publisher Copyright

This research is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants No. 52173237 and 51903068), the Natural Science Foundation of Heilongjiang Province, China (YQ2020E001), The Interdisciplinary Research Foundation of HIT (IR2021207), the Project of National Centre for International Research on Intelligent Nano-Materials and Detection Technology in Environmental Protection, Soochow University (No. SDGH2105), and The Open Project Program (PEBM202107) of Key Laboratory for Photonic and Electric Bandgap Materials, Ministry of Education.

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see 10.1021/acsami.2c21241.

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