Sea urchin-like microstructure pressure sensors with an ultra-broad range and high sensitivity

Abstract

Sensitivity and pressure range are two significant parameters of pressure sensors. Existing pressure sensors have difficulty achieving both high sensitivity and a wide pressure range. Therefore, we propose a new pressure sensor with a ternary nanocomposite Fe2O3/C@SnO2. The sea urchin-like Fe2O3 structure promotes signal transduction and protects Fe2O3 needles from mechanical breaking, while the acetylene carbon black improves the conductivity of Fe2O3. Moreover, one part of the SnO2 nanoparticles adheres to the surfaces of Fe2O3 needles and forms Fe2O3/SnO2 heterostructures, while its other part disperses into the carbon layer to form SnO2@C structure. Collectively, the synergistic effects of the three structures (Fe2O3/C, Fe2O3/SnO2 and SnO2@C) improves on the limited pressure response range of a single structure. The experimental results demonstrate that the Fe2O3/C@SnO2 pressure sensor exhibits high sensitivity (680 kPa−1), fast response (10 ms), broad range (up to 150 kPa), and good reproducibility (over 3500 cycles under a pressure of 110 kPa), implying that the new pressure sensor has wide application prospects especially in wearable electronic devices and health monitoring.