Tailoring 3D conductive networks as wearable sensors for pressure or temperature sensing

Abstract

Wearable and highly sensitive sensors that can detect different stimuli are essential in versatile applications. Despite some progress has been achieved on multi-sensing functions, the construction of flexible pressure and temperature sensors with desirable sensing performances in facile and cost-effective process still remains a challenge. Here, a flexible sensor with conductive porous structure is proposed by simply combining carbon black (CB) and thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) via sugar-templated pore making strategy. Notably, moderate CB filler amount (30 %) and tunable porous architecture endow the fabricated sensor with satisfactory sensitivity (−3.63 kPa−1), fast response (123 ms), and fascinating recoverability (6000 cycles). In addition to the mechanical stimulus reception, the sensor is demonstrated to possess thermosensitive ability, allowing the real-time capture of the electrical characteristics to temperature change. Furthermore, an integrated sensor array can be realized to detect spatial distribution of pressure/temperature, suggesting the possibility in health-status monitoring, environmental sensing and electronic skin.