Flexible multisensory sensor based on hierarchically porous ionic liquids/thermoplastic polyurethane composites

Abstract

With the rapid development of wearable electronics and electronic skins, the demand for portable and flexible sensors that can perceive surrounding information, including mechanical forces, temperature, and humidity, is dramatically increasing. Herein, we develop a lightweight and flexible multisensory sensor based on the hierarchically porous ionic liquids (ILs)/thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) composite by the combination of vapor-induced phase separation technique and ultrasound-assisted anchoring technique. The as-prepared porous TPU@ILs sensor possesses both the strain- and temperature- sensing capabilities. As a strain sensor, it exhibits excellent sensing performance in various aspects, such as ultra-low detection limit (0.5%), ultra-wide sensing range (0.5–600%), fast response/recovery time (100 ms/80 ms), and outstanding durability, attributed to the hierarchically porous microstructure of TPU@ILs composites. Due to the rigid conductivity-temperature dependence of ILs, the designed porous TPU@ILs sensor also possesses outstanding temperature sensing capability, which has both the high temperature resolution (0.05 °C) and ultrawide temperature sensing range (−30–80 °C). This work provides an effective but simple strategy to fabricate high-performance multisensory sensors, which have great potentials in electronic skins and wearable electronics.