Repurposed Leather with Sensing Capabilities for Multifunctional Electronic Skin.

Binghua Zou,Sheng Li,Qinjie Du,Bing Zheng,Jiansheng Wu,Tao Zhang,Fengwei Huo,Yuanyuan Chen,Wei Huang,Yu Shen,Ruijie Xie,Weina Zhang,Xin Huang,Yihan Liu

doi:10.1002/advs.201801283

Abstract

Electronic skin (e‐skin), an important part toward the realization of artificial intelligence, has been developing through comprehending, mimicking, and eventually outperforming skin in some aspects. Most of the e‐skin substrates are flexible polymers, such as polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). Although PDMS was found to be biocompatible, it is not suitable for long‐time wearing due to its air impermeability. This study reports a simple and designable leather based e‐skin by merging the natural sophisticated structure and wearing comfort of leather with the multifunctional properties of nanomaterials. The leather based e‐skin could make leather, “the dead skin,” repurposed for its sensing capabilities. This e‐skin can be applied in flexible pressure sensors, displays, user‐interactive devices, etc. It provides a new class of materials for the development of multifunctional e‐skin to mimic or even outshine the functions of real skin.

Highlights

Flexibility is a crucial property for e-skin to mimic the mechanical property of human skin
Leather is a traditional natural material obtained from animal skin, it inherits the sophisticated structure from the skin.[38]
The traditional leather recovers the flexibility of skin, while its sensing capability is still under deprivation, an important function of real skin.[39,40,41]

Summary

Repurposed Leather with Sensing Capabilities for Multifunctional Electronic Skin

Someya and co-workers have reported ultraflexible organic optical systems They used ultrathin film as the substrate to incorporate different types of organic devices, thereby endowing e-skin with multiple electronic functionalities, such as sensors and displays,[37] etc. The leather based e-skin could make leather, “the dead skin,” repurposed for its sensing capabilities This e-skin can be applied in flexible pressure sensors, displays, userinteractive devices, etc. It provides a new class of materials for the development of multifunctional e-skin to mimic or even outshine the functions of real skin.

Sichuan University

The flexible pressure sensor exhibited a sensitivity high of

Experimental Section

The project was supported by the National Natural Science

Conflict of Interest