Flexible highly conductive melamine foam/copper sulfide has both electrical heating and pressure sensing properties

Abstract

The increasing advancements in science and technology have led to a growing demand for wearable products. In this paper, copper sulfide/melamine foam composites were prepared by chemical deposition of copper sulfide on the melamine foam skeleton. The effects of different deposition amount of copper sulfide on its microstructure, and electrical conductivity were studied. The results showed that the composite had good electrical conductivity and flexibility when the reaction solution concentration was 1 wt.%. The material can be used as an electric heater, the surface of the material can be heated to 145°C under the low voltage of 4 V, and the material can also be used as a flexible pressure sensor with a high sensitivity of 0.385 kPa−1 and a stability of more than 2000 cycles. Materials based on flexible copper sulfide/melamine foams can be used for electric heaters and flexible pressure sensor, which will make them promising applications in wearable products.