Interfacially Locked Metal Aerogel Inside Porous Polymer Composite for Sensitive and Durable Flexible Piezoresistive Sensors

Abstract

Flexible pressure sensors play significant roles in wearable devices, electronic skins, and human‐machine interface (HMI). However, it remains challenging to develop flexible piezoresistive sensors with outstanding comprehensive performances, especially with excellent long‐term durability. Herein, a facile “interfacial locking strategy” has been developed to fabricate metal aerogel‐based pressure sensors with excellent sensitivity and prominent stability. The strategy broke the bottleneck of the intrinsically poor mechanical properties of metal aerogels by grafting them on highly elastic melamine sponge with the help of a thin polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) layer as the interface‐reinforcing media. The hierarchically porous conductive structure of the ensemble offered the as‐prepared flexible piezoresistive sensor with a sensitivity as high as 12 kPa −1 , a response time as fast as 85 ms, and a prominent durability over 23 000 compression cycles. The excellent comprehensive performance enables the successful application of the flexible piezoresistive sensor as two‐dimensional (2D) array device as well as three‐dimensional (3D) force‐detecting device for real‐time monitoring of HMI activities.

Porous AgNWs/Poly(vinylidene fluoride) Composite-Based Flexible Piezoresistive Sensor with High Sensitivity and Wide Pressure Ranges

“…A comparison of the sensing performances of the PAPC- x based piezoresistive sensors is shown in Table S1. Such a sensitivity variation is typical for flexible piezoresistive sensors based on porous materials. , Figure c and Table S2 compare the sensing performances of the PAPC-based flexible piezoresistive sensor with other porous-based piezoresistive sensors reported in the previous literature, demonstrating the higher sensitivity and broader sensing range for the PAPC-based sensor simultaneously. ,− …”

Nanoparticle-Based Aerogels and Their Prospective Future Applications

“…Flexible piezoresistive sensors have been developed by Peng, Zheng, Liu, et al as detailed in a recent article in Advanced Science . The Ag 2 Au 3 alloyed bimetallic NPA pressure sensors exhibit excellent sensitivity and good stability.…”

“…Flexible piezoresistive sensors have been developed by Peng, Zheng, Liu, et al as detailed in a recent article in Advanced Science. 77 The Ag 2 Au 3 alloyed bimetallic NPA pressure sensors exhibit excellent sensitivity and good stability. Grafting them onto a highly elastic melamine sponge using a thin polydimethylsiloxane layer as an interfacial reinforcing medium could improve the inherently poor mechanical properties of the metal aerogels.…”

Nonenzymatic Sweat Wearable Uric Acid Sensor Based on N-Doped Reduced Graphene Oxide/Au Dual Aerogels

“…Noble metal aerogels (NMAs), derived from the preformed colloidal metal nanoparticles (NPs) and composed of the interfused nanowires/chains, are a new class of the aerogel family. , They not only combine the individual characteristics of monolithic aerogel materials (e.g., high specific surface areas and open interconnected porosity) and noble metal NPs (e.g., catalytic and plasmonic activity) but also possess collective and improved properties, thus attracting great attention in recent years. , To date, remarkable contributions have been devoted to the synthesis of various mono-/multimetallic aerogels and their application in electrocatalysis. − Prominent electrocatalytic activities of the NMAs with respect to the metal NPs and commercial catalysts have been well-reported in various reactions. − More interestingly, the highly branched, interfused nanowire structure of the NMAs endows them with inherent self-healing and flexible properties, which would be potentially applied as flexible sensing electrodes in wearable sensing applications. , For instance, a high-performance wearable biosensing platform has been first demonstrated by the highly porous Au hydrogels with the excellent electrocatalytic activity and flexibility for in situ monitoring of sweat glucose . Recently, considering the high cost and low abundance of the noble metals, it will be a great idea to introduce other components (e.g., carbon nanomaterials) into the NMAs to efficiently lower the cost, enrich the structural design, and enhance the activity. − However, despite the concentrated achievements, the rational design of such integrated aerogels for wearable sensing applications has been rarely explored.…”