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A High–Performance Flexible Piezoresistive Pressure Sensor Features an Integrated Design of Conductive Fabric Electrode and Polyurethane Sponge
Author(s) -
Cheng Haonan,
Zhang Ningyi,
Yin Yunjie,
Wang Chaoxia
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
macromolecular materials and engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.913
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1439-2054
pISSN - 1438-7492
DOI - 10.1002/mame.202100263
Subject(s) - materials science , pressure sensor , composite material , piezoresistive effect , polyurethane , electrode , electrical conductor , graphene , polyester , polyethylene terephthalate , composite number , oxide , thermoplastic polyurethane , nanotechnology , elastomer , mechanical engineering , chemistry , engineering , metallurgy
Due to its porous structure and good elasticity, conductive polyurethane (PU) sponge is used as the main substrate of the flexible piezoresistive pressure sensor. The effective combination of conductive PU sponge and electrode material is the foundation for the pressure sensor, but it needs to be bonded by expensive conductive silver paste or copper paste. In addition, the common electrode materials weaken the flexibility of the PU sponge pressure sensors because of their rigidity. Herein, PU sponge and polyester (PET) fabric are first bonded to produce (PET‐PU) composite, which is then impregnated with graphene oxide (GO). The obtained reduced graphene oxide(rGO)@PET fabric and rGO@PU are used as electrode and piezoresistive material, respectively. Then rGO@(PET‐PU) composite is assembled into a pressure sensor only by using wire connections in the rGO@PET fabric. Benefiting from excellent piezoresistive behavior, rGO@(PET‐TPU) pressure sensor displays high sensitivity (0.255 kPa −1 at below 2.6 kPa), wide detection limit (≈0–85.0%), and long durability (over 1800 cycles). Besides, the pressure sensor demonstrates good performance in monitoring human activities, including finger bending, clicking keyboard, breathing, elbow bending, and walking posture, thus providing a promising material for human activity monitoring.