3D Porous MXene Aerogel through Gas Foaming for Multifunctional Pressure Sensor

Abstract

The development of smart wearable electronic devices puts forward higher requirements for future flexible electronics. The design of highly sensitive and high-performance flexible pressure sensors plays an important role in promoting the development of flexible electronic devices. Recently, MXenes with excellent properties have shown great potential in the field of flexible electronics. However, the easy-stacking inclination of nanomaterials limits the development of their excellent properties and the performance improvement of related pressure sensors. Traditional methods for constructing 3D porous structures have the disadvantages of complexity, long period, and difficulty of scalability. Here, the gas foaming strategy is adopted to rapidly construct 3D porous MXene aerogels. Combining the excellent surface properties of MXenes with the porous structure of aerogel, the prepared MXene aerogels are successfully used in high-performance multifunctional flexible pressure sensors with high sensitivity (306 kPa-1), wide detection range (2.3 Pa to 87.3 kPa), fast response time (35 ms), and ultrastability (>20,000 cycles), as well as self-healing, waterproof, cold-resistant, and heat-resistant capabilities. MXene aerogel pressure sensors show great potential in harsh environment detection, behavior monitoring, equipment recovery, pressure array identification, remote monitoring, and human-computer interaction applications.