Highly Stretchable Electronic‐Skin Sensors with Porous Microstructure for Efficient Multimodal Sensing with Wearable Comfort

Abstract

Abstract Wearable electronic skins have aroused extensive interest in health detection, human–computer interaction, and robotics. However, it remains a great challenge to realize the multifunctional electronic skin with a wide detection range, high sensitivity, multi‐stimulus response, and wearable comfort on a single device. Here, a flexible porous thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU)/carbon black (CB) multimodal sensor that perceives multiple stimuli of pressure, strain, and humidity is prepared by the water vapor‐induced phase separation method. The as‐prepared device exhibits a wide pressure detection range (up to 49 kPa), excellent sensitivity (0.21 kPa−1), fast response (150 ms), and recovery time (120 ms). Furthermore, as a strain sensor, it is not only highly stretchable (730%), but also can operate over a strain range of 0–240% with a sensitivity of up to 1485.2 and excellent durability. Moreover, the designed sensor can detect humidity changes from 35% to 90% and has a fast response time (1.2 s), while enabling non‐contact sensing of a fingertip. Importantly, the porous TPU/CB film presents excellent breathability, enabling it to achieve a high level of comfort. Therefore, the perfect integration of these features ensures the potential applications of porous TPU/CB sensors in human activity detection, exhale monitoring, and breathable wearable devices.

Keywords

• breathability
• electronic‐skins
• humidity sensor
• pressure sensor
• strain sensor