Iontronic pressure sensor with high sensitivity and linear response over a wide pressure range based on soft micropillared electrodes

Electronic skins and flexible pressure sensors are important devices for advanced healthcare and intelligent robotics.Sensitivity is a key parameter of flexible pressure sensors.Whereas introducing surface microstructures in a capacitive-type sensor can significantly improve its sensitivity,the signal becomes nonlinear and the pressure response range gets much narrower,significantly limiting the applications of flexible pressure sensors.Here,we designed a pressure sensor that utilizes a nanoscale iontronic interface of an ionic gel layer and a micropillared electrode,for highly linear capacitance-to-pressure response and high sensitivity over a wide pressure range.The micropillars undergo three stages of deformation upon loading:initial contact(0-6 k Pa)and structure buckling(6-12 k Pa)that exhibit a low and nonlinear response,as well as a post-buckling stage that has a high signal linearity with high sensitivity(33.16 k Pa-1)over a broad pressure range of 12-176 k Pa.The high linearity lies in the subtle balance between the structure compression and mechanical matching of the two materials at the gel-electrode interface.Our sensor has been applied in pulse detection,plantar pressure mapping,and grasp task of an artificial limb.This work provides a physical insight in achieving linear response through the design of appropriate microstructures and selection of materials with suitable modulus in flexible pressure sensors,which are potentially useful in intelligent robots and health monitoring.

A stretchable and adhesive ionic conductor based on polyacrylic acid and deep eutectic solvents

Hydrogels are a widely used ionic conductor in on-skin electronic and iontronic devices.However,hydrogels dehydrate in the open air and freeze at low temperatures,limiting their real applications when they are attached on skin or exposed to low temperatures.Polymer-ionic liquid gels can overcome these two obstacles,but synthetic ionic liquids are expensive and toxic.In this work,we present an ionic conductor based on polyacrylic acid(PAAc)and deep eutectic solvents(DESs)that well addresses the aforementioned challenges.We polymerize acrylic acid in DESs to get the PAAc–DES gel,which exhibits excellent stretchability(>1000%),high electrical conductivity(1.26 mS cm^(−1)),high adhesion to the skin(~100 Nm^(−1)),as well as good anti-drying and anti-freezing properties.We also demonstrate that the PAAc-DES gel can be used as an on-skin electrode to record the surface electromyographic signal with high signal quality,or as a transparent stretchable electrode in iontronic devices that can work at–20℃.We believe that the PAAc–DES gels are an ideal candidate as epidermal electrodes or transparent stretchable electrodes.