Department of Organic Materials and Fiber Engineering, Soongsil University, Seoul 06978, Korea.
Sensors (Basel). 2021 Jun 4;21(11):3895. doi: 10.3390/s21113895.
Flexible and wearable pressure sensors have attracted significant attention owing to their roles in healthcare monitoring and human-machine interfaces. In this study, we introduce a wide-range, highly sensitive, stable, reversible, and biocompatible pressure sensor based on a porous Ecoflex with tilted air-gap-structured and carbonized cotton fabric (CCF) electrodes. The knitted structure of electrodes demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed sensor in enhancing the pressure-sensing performance in comparison to a woven structure due to the inherent properties of naturally generated space. In addition, the presence of tilted air gaps in the porous elastomer provided high deformability, thereby significantly improving the sensor sensitivity compared to other dielectric structures that have no or vertical air gaps. The combination of knitted CCF electrodes and the porous dielectric with tilted air gaps achieved a sensitivity of 24.5 × 10 kPa at 100 kPa, along with a wide detection range (1 MPa). It is also noteworthy that this novel method is low-cost, facile, scalable, and ecofriendly. Finally, the proposed sensor integrated into a smart glove detected human motions of grasping water cups, thus demonstrating its potential applications in wearable electronics.
柔性可穿戴压力传感器因其在医疗保健监测和人机接口中的作用而受到广泛关注。在本研究中，我们介绍了一种基于具有倾斜气隙结构的多孔 Ecoflex 和碳化棉织物（CCF）电极的宽量程、高灵敏度、稳定、可逆和生物兼容的压力传感器。电极的针织结构证明了与编织结构相比，由于天然产生的空间的固有特性，所提出的传感器在增强压力传感性能方面的有效性。此外，多孔弹性体中倾斜气隙的存在提供了高的可变形性，从而与没有或垂直气隙的其他介电结构相比，显著提高了传感器的灵敏度。针织 CCF 电极和具有倾斜气隙的多孔介电材料的结合实现了在 100 kPa 时 24.5×10 kPa 的灵敏度，同时具有较宽的检测范围（1 MPa）。值得注意的是，这种新方法具有低成本、简便、可扩展和环保的特点。最后，集成到智能手套中的传感器检测到了抓取水杯的人体运动，从而证明了其在可穿戴电子设备中的潜在应用。
