Flexible, Tunable, and Ultrasensitive Capacitive Pressure Sensor with Microconformal Graphene Electrodes

Abstract

High-performance flexible pressure sensors are highly desirable in health monitoring, robotic tactile, and artificial intelligence. Construction of microstructures in dielectrics and electrodes is the dominating approach to improving the performance of capacitive pressure sensors. Herein, we have demonstrated a novel three-dimensional microconformal graphene electrode for ultrasensitive and tunable flexible capacitive pressure sensors. Because the fabrication process is controllable, the morphologies of the graphene that is perfectly conformal with the electrode are controllable consequently. Multiscale morphologies ranging from a few nanometers to hundreds of nanometers, even to tens of micrometers, have been systematically investigated, and the high-performance capacitive pressure sensor with high sensitivity (3.19 kPa–1), fast response (30 ms), ultralow detection limit (1 mg), tunable-sensitivity, high flexibility, and high stability was obtained. Furthermore, an ultrasensitivity of 7.68 kPa–1 was successfully achieved via symmetric double microconformal graphene electrodes. The finite element analysis indicates that the microstructured graphene electrode can enhance large deformation and thus effectively improve the sensitivity. Additionally, the proposed pressure sensors are demonstrated with practical applications including insect crawling detection, wearable health monitoring, and force feedback of robot tactile sensing with a sensor array. The microconformal graphene may provide a new approach to fabricating controllable microstructured electrodes to enhance the performance of capacitive pressure sensors and has great potential for innovative applications in wearable health-monitoring devices, robot tactile systems, and human–machine interface systems.

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Physical sensors for skin‐inspired electronics

“…Copyright 2017, American Chemical Society. E, Microcylinders . Copyright 2019, American Chemical Society.…”

“…However, due to the incompressible and viscoelastic of the elastomeric dielectrics, the sensitivity and response time of capacitive‐type mechanical sensors are still limited. To address this challenge, researchers developed dielectric materials with microstructures (eg, pores, pyramids, microcylinders, microspheres, beads, and needles) (Figure C‐G). As shown in Figure C, an ultralow limit (0.1 Pa) pressure sensor based on a microporous dielectric elastomer was reported .…”

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