The performance of contact resistive pressure sensors
heavily relies
on the intrinsic characteristics of the active layers, including the
mechanical surface structure, conductivity, and elastic properties.
However, efficiently and simply regulating the conductivity, morphology,
and modulus of the active layers has remained a challenge. In this
study, we introduced electro-polymerized polypyrrole (ePPy) to design
flexible contact piezoresistive sensors with tailored intrinsic properties.
The customizable intrinsic property of ePPy was comprehensively illustrated
on the chemical and electronic structure scale, and the impact of
ePPy’s intrinsic properties on the sensing performance of the
device was investigated by determining the correlation between resistivity,
roughness, and device sensitivity. Due to the synergistic effects
of roughness, conductivity, and elastic properties of the active layers,
the flexible ePPy-based pressure sensor exhibited high sensitivity
(3.19 kPa–1, 1–10 kPa, R
2 = 0.97), fast response time, good durability, and low
power consumption. These advantages allowed the sensor to offer an
immediate response to human motion such as finger-bending and grasping
movements, demonstrating the promising potential of tailorable ePPy-based
contact piezoresistive sensors for wearable electronic applications.