Nanomaterials (May 2019)

A Sensitive Piezoresistive Tactile Sensor Combining Two Microstructures

  • Xuguang Sun,
  • Jianhai Sun,
  • Shuaikang Zheng,
  • Chunkai Wang,
  • Wenshuo Tan,
  • Jingong Zhang,
  • Chunxiu Liu,
  • Chang Liu,
  • Tong Li,
  • Zhimei Qi,
  • Ning Xue

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/nano9050779
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 5
p. 779

Abstract

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A tactile sensor is an indispensable component for electronic skin, mimicking the sensing function of organism skin. Various sensing materials and microstructures have been adopted in the fabrication of tactile sensors. Herein, we propose a highly sensitive flexible tactile sensor composed of nanocomposites with pyramid and irregularly rough microstructures and implement a comparison of piezoresistive properties of nanocomposites with varying weight proportions of multi-wall nanotubes and carbon black particles. In addition to the simple and low-cost fabrication method, the tactile sensor can reach high sensitivity of 3.2 kPa−1 in the range of <1 kPa and fast dynamic response of 217 ms (loading) and 81 ms (recovery) at 40 kPa pressure. Moreover, body movement monitoring applications have been carried out utilizing the flexible tactile sensor. A sound monitoring application further indicates the potential for applications in electronic skin, human−computer interaction, and physiological detection.

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