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Silver nanoflakes-enhanced anisotropic hybrid composites for integratable pressure sensors

Silver nanoflakes-enhanced anisotropic hybrid composites for integratable pressure sensors
Silver nanoflakes-enhanced anisotropic hybrid composites for integratable pressure sensors

Flexible pressure sensors based on polymer elastomers filled with conductive fillers show great advantages in their applications in flexible electronic devices. However, integratable high-sensitivity pressure sensors remain understudied. This work improves the conductivity and sensitivity of PDMS-Fe/Ni piezoresistive composites by introducing silver flakes and magnetic-assisted alignment techniques. As secondary fillers, silver flakes with high aspect ratios enhance the conductive percolation network in composites. Meanwhile, a magnetic field aligns ferromagnetic particles to further improve the conductivity and sensitivity of composites. The resistivity of the composite decreases sharply by 1000 times within a tiny compression strain of 1%, indicating excellent sensing performance. On the basis of this, we demonstrate an integratable miniature pressure sensor with a small size (2 × 2 × 1 mm), high sensitivity (0.966 kPa−1), and wide sensing range (200 kPa). Finally, we develop a flexible E-skin system with 5 × 5 integratable sensor units to detect pressure distribution, which shows rapid real-time response, high resolution, and high sensitivity.

anisotropic properties, conductive elastomer, electronic skins, highly sensitive pressure sensor
2079-4991
Zhang, Qingtian
58f0e671-0e53-478f-8f4d-b94dd720893e
Yun, Guolin
240c3dc9-c224-41c0-8740-de165d1eb90b
Jin, Shida
be11c1f1-5811-4792-a1de-0a870919ab20
Chen, Zexin
8de98029-a757-453e-bc4f-7054eba5b83c
Tang, Shi Yang
1d0f15c6-2a3e-4bad-a3d8-fc267db93ed4
Lu, Hongda
731b3c09-82ae-408b-8218-95b0de29f2dd
Du, Haiping
f8e3ba9d-395c-4d08-a62b-3de98e4d6a99
Li, Weihua
e2555036-0e48-425a-afeb-db6ffba5238e
Zhang, Qingtian
58f0e671-0e53-478f-8f4d-b94dd720893e
Yun, Guolin
240c3dc9-c224-41c0-8740-de165d1eb90b
Jin, Shida
be11c1f1-5811-4792-a1de-0a870919ab20
Chen, Zexin
8de98029-a757-453e-bc4f-7054eba5b83c
Tang, Shi Yang
1d0f15c6-2a3e-4bad-a3d8-fc267db93ed4
Lu, Hongda
731b3c09-82ae-408b-8218-95b0de29f2dd
Du, Haiping
f8e3ba9d-395c-4d08-a62b-3de98e4d6a99
Li, Weihua
e2555036-0e48-425a-afeb-db6ffba5238e

Zhang, Qingtian, Yun, Guolin, Jin, Shida, Chen, Zexin, Tang, Shi Yang, Lu, Hongda, Du, Haiping and Li, Weihua (2022) Silver nanoflakes-enhanced anisotropic hybrid composites for integratable pressure sensors. Nanomaterials, 12 (22), [4018]. (doi:10.3390/nano12224018).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Flexible pressure sensors based on polymer elastomers filled with conductive fillers show great advantages in their applications in flexible electronic devices. However, integratable high-sensitivity pressure sensors remain understudied. This work improves the conductivity and sensitivity of PDMS-Fe/Ni piezoresistive composites by introducing silver flakes and magnetic-assisted alignment techniques. As secondary fillers, silver flakes with high aspect ratios enhance the conductive percolation network in composites. Meanwhile, a magnetic field aligns ferromagnetic particles to further improve the conductivity and sensitivity of composites. The resistivity of the composite decreases sharply by 1000 times within a tiny compression strain of 1%, indicating excellent sensing performance. On the basis of this, we demonstrate an integratable miniature pressure sensor with a small size (2 × 2 × 1 mm), high sensitivity (0.966 kPa−1), and wide sensing range (200 kPa). Finally, we develop a flexible E-skin system with 5 × 5 integratable sensor units to detect pressure distribution, which shows rapid real-time response, high resolution, and high sensitivity.

Text
nanomaterials-12-04018 - Version of Record
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Accepted/In Press date: 14 November 2022
Published date: 16 November 2022
Additional Information: Funding Information: The authors acknowledge the use of the facilities at the UOW Electron Microscopy Center. The authors are grateful for the financial support provided by the University of Wollongong. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 by the authors.
Keywords: anisotropic properties, conductive elastomer, electronic skins, highly sensitive pressure sensor

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 481923
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/481923
ISSN: 2079-4991
PURE UUID: 2eded2ed-34cf-4915-ba05-cca055b94204
ORCID for Shi Yang Tang: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-3079-8880

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 13 Sep 2023 17:09
Last modified: 06 Jun 2024 02:18

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Contributors

Author: Qingtian Zhang
Author: Guolin Yun
Author: Shida Jin
Author: Zexin Chen
Author: Shi Yang Tang ORCID iD
Author: Hongda Lu
Author: Haiping Du
Author: Weihua Li

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