Robotics Institute, School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China.
State Key Laboratory of Mechanical System and Vibration, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China.
Adv Mater. 2022 Aug;34(32):e2203650. doi: 10.1002/adma.202203650. Epub 2022 Jul 11.
Highly stretchable strain sensors based on conducting polymer hydrogel are rapidly emerging as a promising candidate toward diverse wearable skins and sensing devices for soft machines. However, due to the intrinsic limitations of low stretchability and large hysteresis, existing strain sensors cannot fully exploit their potential when used in wearable or robotic systems. Here, a conducting polymer hydrogel strain sensor exhibiting both ultimate strain (300%) and negligible hysteresis (<1.5%) is presented. This is achieved through a unique microphase semiseparated network design by compositing poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) nanofibers with poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and facile fabrication by combining 3D printing and successive freeze-thawing. The overall superior performances of the strain sensor including stretchability, linearity, cyclic stability, and robustness against mechanical twisting and pressing are systematically characterized. The integration and application of such strain sensor with electronic skins are further demonstrated to measure various physiological signals, identify hand gestures, enable a soft gripper for objection recognition, and remote control of an industrial robot. This work may offer both promising conducting polymer hydrogels with enhanced sensing functionalities and technical platforms toward stretchable electronic skins and intelligent robotic systems.
基于导电聚合物水凝胶的高拉伸应变传感器作为一种有前途的候选材料，正在迅速成为各种可穿戴皮肤和用于软机器的传感设备的研究热点。然而，由于低拉伸性和大滞后的固有限制，现有的应变传感器在用于可穿戴或机器人系统时，无法充分发挥其潜力。在这里，我们提出了一种具有超高拉伸性（300%）和可忽略滞后（<1.5%）的导电聚合物水凝胶应变传感器。这是通过将聚（3,4-乙二氧基噻吩）：聚苯乙烯磺酸盐（PEDOT:PSS）纳米纤维与聚乙烯醇（PVA）复合，并通过 3D 打印和连续冻融相结合的简易制造工艺，实现独特的微相半分离网络设计来实现的。该应变传感器的整体优异性能，包括拉伸性、线性度、循环稳定性以及对机械扭曲和按压的鲁棒性，都得到了系统的表征。进一步展示了这种应变传感器与电子皮肤的集成和应用，可以测量各种生理信号、识别手势、实现用于物体识别的软夹爪，以及对工业机器人的远程控制。这项工作为具有增强传感功能的导电聚合物水凝胶和用于可拉伸电子皮肤和智能机器人系统的技术平台提供了新的思路。
