A Facile Realization Scheme for Tactile Sensing with a Structured Silver Nanowire‐PDMS Composite

Abstract

To mimic the sensing function of human skin, the rational design of force‐sensitive materials is highly required for sensors. Here, a facile design of resistive‐type tactile sensors based on a structured silver nanowire‐polydimethylsiloxane composite is reported for applications in electronic skins and wearable electronics. The composite has a hollow microstructure of interconnected channels, and the inner surface of the channels is a conductive layer consisting of silver nanowires. The sensing function to external force is realized by measuring the resistance change upon deforming. The deforming causes the distance change of silver nanowires and the contact‐area change of the inner surfaces. Such a unique structure promises a robust mechanical property due to the half‐embedded silver nanowires which are free of peeling off, and also makes it possible to control the device sensitivity by its mechanical structure and the elastic property of the polydimethylsiloxane. The results show that the composite has steady‐state responses to various pressures and stretches, even to mouth blowing, a response time of ≈90 ms, and favorable repeatability over 2000 cycles of bending/unbending. The 3D structure enables pressing, bending, pulling and torsional force sensing, and promises real‐time monitoring of various human motions ranging from blood pulses to joint movements.

UV‐Curable Adhesive Tape‐Assisted Patterning of Metal Nanowires for Ultrasimple Fabrication of Stretchable Pressure Sensor

“…This implies a large contact area between the AgNWs PDMS, which is a useful structure known to the mechanical stability of stretchable electrodes requiring repeated pressurization or stretching. [35][36][37] Figure 6c shows the fabricated AgNWs/ PDMS-based stretchable capacitor. The bright tandem compound pattern in this sensor is the impregnated AgNW network, and the dark part is the PDMS-only area without AgNW.…”

Micro‐Nano Processing of Active Layers in Flexible Tactile Sensors via Template Methods: A Review

“…The first strategy is to coat polymers on sacrificial or etched skeletons (such as nickel foam, [178][179][180][181] cube sugar [86,[182][183][184] ), and then immerse them in the etching solution after curing to sacrifice the skeleton, thereby obtaining the foam structure. As shown in Figure 11a, Zhao et al [32] used the APCVD to grow a graphene network on a Ni foam template and then immersed it in the PDMS precursor mixture.…”

Highly Compressible and Sensitive Flexible Piezoresistive Pressure Sensor Based on MWCNTs/Ti3C2Tx MXene @ Melamine Foam for Human Gesture Monitoring and Recognition

“…Although the sensing properties, such as the response time, working range, sensitivity and mechanical compliance, can be significantly improved, challenges remain to achieve high sensitivity over a wide sensing range. Recently, three-dimensional microstructures, composed of conductive materials (e.g., graphene [19,20], carbon nanotubes [21,22] and metal nanowires [23,24]) combined with porous framework polymers, have been extensively studied and become promising candidates for the fabrication of flexible piezoresistive sensors with a broad sensitive range.…”