Flexible pressure sensors have emerged
as an indispensable part
of wearable devices due to their application in physiological activity
monitoring. To realize long-term on-body service, they are increasingly
required for properties of conformability, air permeability, and durability.
However, the enhancement of sensitivity remains a challenge for ultrathin
capacitive sensors, particularly in the low-pressure region. Here,
we introduced a highly sensitive and ultrathin capacitive pressure
sensor based on a breathable all-fabric network with a micropatterned
nanofiber dielectric layer, an all-fabric capacitive sensor (AFCS).
This all-fabric network endows a series of exceptional performances,
such as high sensitivity (8.31 kPa–1 under 1 kPa),
ultralow detection limit (0.5 Pa), wide detection range (0.5 Pa to
80 kPa), and excellent robustness (10 000 dynamic cycles).
Besides, the all-fabric structure provides other properties for the
AFCS, e.g., high skin conformability, super thinness (dozens of micrometers),
and exceptional air permeability. Our AFCS shows promising potential
in breathing track, muscle activity detection, fingertip pressure
monitoring, and spatial pressure distribution, paving way for comfortable
skinlike epidermal electronics.
Triboelectrification‐enabled self‐powered flexible electronic/optical systems have aroused a new surge of interest in recent years. All‐in‐one integration of such a system, which could significantly improve its adaptability, operability, and portability, still remains a challenge due to the absence of suitable architectures and integration schemes. Herein, a previously reported self‐powered optical switch (OS) is thoroughly remolded and upgraded to a fully integrated contact‐sliding‐triboelectrification‐driven dynamic optical transmittance modulator (OTM). The OTM is constructed with a multilayered structure, comprising a transparent triboelectrification top layer, a SiO2‐spaced polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) intermediate layer, and a flexible transparent conductive substrate. The working mechanism is that an alternating electric field can be induced once contact‐sliding occurs upon the OTM, rendering the PDLC layer immediately switching its initial translucent state to an instantaneous transparent state. As such, a decent dimming range with the relative transmitted light intensity from 0.17 to 0.72 can be achieved at low mechanical thresholds of contact pressure (≈20 kPa) and sliding velocity (≈0.3 m s−1). Moreover, for practical applications, demonstrations of information covering and selective visualization are successfully implemented without any extra optical elements nor external power supplies, explicitly showing great potential for the OTM in various self‐powered optical interactive applications.
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