Flexible capacitive pressure sensor based on multi-walled carbon nanotubes microstructure electrodes

Abstract

Flexible pressure sensors have been widely used in wearable devices, medical and health, smart services and other industries. However, the fabrication of sensor with high sensitivity, large sensing range and good stability is still a vital research topic. Herein, a flexible capacitive pressure sensor based on micro-structured electrode is developed, which uses a micro-structured polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) film embedded with a layer of multi-walled carbon nanotubes as the micro-structured conductive electrode, and a smooth PDMS film as the dielectric layer. The results indicate that the sensor exhibits a strong linear pressure-capacitance relationship. The sensitivity of the sensor can reach 1.3 kPa−1 in the pressure range of 0–100 Pa by optimizing the size of the electrode microstructure. In addition, the sensor exhibits a good repeatability even after 4000 repeated pressing. In addition, we demonstrate that the pressure sensor can be applied to monitor arterial pulse waves and breathing. The sensor is assembled in the form of arrays, which can effectively detect the shape of the measured object, proving that the sensor can be applied in complicated scenarios such as service robot and wearable equipment.