Liu Shiyuan, Shan Yao, Hong Ying, Jin Yuankai, Lin Weikang, Zhang Zhuomin, Xu Xiaote, Wang Zuankai, Yang Zhengbao
Department of Mechanical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Adv Sci (Weinh). 2022 Jun;9(18):e2106030. doi: 10.1002/advs.202106030. Epub 2022 Apr 28.
Piezoceramic films are an essential class of energy-conversion materials that have been widely used in the electronics industry. Although current methods create a great freedom for fabricating high-quality piezoceramic films, it requires well-controlled synthesis conditions, including special high-cost equipment and planar substrates particularly. The limited substrate selections hinder the applications of piezoceramic films in 3D conformal structures where most objects possess complex curvilinear surfaces. To overcome such limitations, a fast, energy-efficient, and cost-effective approach, named flame treated spray (FTS) coating, is developed for preparing piezoceramic films on free-form surfaces. The flame treatment significantly enhances the hydrophilicity of a substrate, assisting in forming a uniform and continuous thin film. The followed spray coating deposits hundreds of nanometers to several micrometers thick films on 3D free-form surfaces. Given the size controllability and arbitrary surface compatibility of the FTS method, a highly conformal piezoelectric tactile sensor array (4 × 4) is assembled on a spherical surface for mimicking robot fingers and an on-site thin-film sensor on the wing of an aircraft model to monitor the vibration in real-time during flight. The FTS film deposition offers a highly promising methodology for the application of functional thin-film from micro- to marcoscale devices, regardless of conformal problems.
压电陶瓷薄膜是一类重要的能量转换材料，已在电子工业中广泛应用。尽管目前的方法为制造高质量的压电陶瓷薄膜提供了很大的自由度，但它需要精确控制的合成条件，特别是包括特殊的高成本设备和平面衬底。有限的衬底选择阻碍了压电陶瓷薄膜在大多数物体具有复杂曲线表面的三维共形结构中的应用。为了克服这些限制，开发了一种快速、节能且经济高效的方法，称为火焰处理喷雾（FTS）涂层，用于在自由曲面表面制备压电陶瓷薄膜。火焰处理显著提高了衬底的亲水性，有助于形成均匀且连续的薄膜。随后的喷雾涂层在三维自由曲面表面上沉积数百纳米至几微米厚的薄膜。鉴于FTS方法的尺寸可控性和任意表面兼容性，在球形表面上组装了一个高度共形的压电触觉传感器阵列（4×4）以模拟机器人手指，并在飞机模型机翼上制作了一个现场薄膜传感器，以在飞行过程中实时监测振动。FTS薄膜沉积为从微尺度到宏观尺度的功能薄膜应用提供了一种非常有前景的方法，而无需考虑共形问题。
