Fingertip‐skin‐inspired highly sensitive and multifunctional sensor with hierarchically structured conductive graphite/polydimethylsiloxane foams

Sun, Q.-J., Zhao, X.-H., Zhou, Y., Yeung, C.-C., Wu, W., Venkatesh, S., Xu, Z.-X., Wylie, J. J., Li, W.-J. and Roy, V. A.L. (2019) Fingertip‐skin‐inspired highly sensitive and multifunctional sensor with hierarchically structured conductive graphite/polydimethylsiloxane foams. Advanced Functional Materials, 29(18), 1808829. (doi: 10.1002/adfm.201808829)

Abstract

Fingertip skin exhibits high sensitivity in a broad pressure range, and can detect diverse stimuli, including textures, temperature, humidity, etc. Despite adopting diverse microstructures and functional materials, achieving skin sensor devices possessing high pressure sensitivity over a wide linear range and with multifunctional sensing capabilities is still challenging. Herein, inspired by the microstructures of fingertip skin, a highly sensitive skin sensor is demonstrated with a linear response over a broad pressure range and multifunctional sensing capabilities. The porous sensing layer is designed with hierarchical microstructures on the surface. By optimizing the porosity and the graphite concentration, a fabricated skin sensor device exhibits a superior sensitivity of 245 kPa−1 over a broad linear pressure range from 5 Pa to 120 kPa. For practical application demonstrations, the sensor devices are utilized to monitor subtle wrist pulse and diverse human motions including finger bending, wrist bending, and feet movement. Furthermore, this novel sensor device demonstrates potential applications in recognizing textures and detecting environmental temperatures, thereby marking an important progress for constructing advanced electronic skin.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: The authors acknowledge the grant from the Research Grant Council of HKSAR (Grant No. T42‐103/16N) and the Science and Technology Innovation Commission of Shenzhen (Grant Nos. KQJSCX20170327150812967 and JCYJ20170818143618288).
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Vellaisamy, Professor Roy
• Authors: Sun, Q.-J., Zhao, X.-H., Zhou, Y., Yeung, C.-C., Wu, W., Venkatesh, S., Xu, Z.-X., Wylie, J. J., Li, W.-J., and Roy, V. A.L.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering
• Journal Name: Advanced Functional Materials
• Publisher: Wiley
• ISSN: 1616-301X
• ISSN (Online): 1616-3028
• Published Online: 07 March 2019
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2019 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH and Co. KGaA, Weinheim
• First Published: First published in Advanced Functional Materials 29(18):1808829
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy