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A laser ablated graphene-based flexible self-powered pressure sensor for human gestures and finger pulse monitoring

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Abstract

Flexible triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs)-based pressure sensors are very essential for the wide-range applications, comprising wearable healthcare systems, intuitive human-device interfaces, electronic-skin (e-skin), and artificial intelligence. Most of conventional fabrication methods used to produce high-performance TENGs involve plasma treatment, photolithography, printing, and electro-deposition. However, these fabrication techniques are expensive, multi-step, time-consuming and not suitable for mass production, which are the main barriers for efficient and cost-effective commercialization of TENGs. Here, we established a highly reliable scheme for the fabrication of a novel eco-friendly, low cost, and TENG-based pressure sensor (TEPS) designed for usage in self-powered-human gesture detection (SP-HGD) likewise wearable healthcare applications. The sensors with microstructured electrodes performed well with high sensitivity (7.697 kPa−1), a lower limit of detection (∼ 1 Pa), faster response time (< 9.9 ms), and highly stable over > 4,000 compression-releasing cycles. The proposed method is suitable for the adaptable fabrication of TEPS at an extremely low cost with possible applications in self-powered systems, especially e-skin and healthcare applications.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Bio & Medical Technology Development Program of the NRF grant funded by the Korean government (MSIT) (No. NRF-2017M3A9F1031270).

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  1. Partha Sarati Das and Ashok Chhetry contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Micro/Nano Devices & Packaging Lab., Dept. of Electronic Engineering, Kwangwoon University, Seoul, 01897, Republic of Korea

    Partha Sarati Das, Ashok Chhetry, Pukar Maharjan, M. Salauddin Rasel & Jae Yeong Park

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  1. Partha Sarati Das
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  2. Ashok Chhetry
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  3. Pukar Maharjan
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  4. M. Salauddin Rasel
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Correspondence to Jae Yeong Park.

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Das, P.S., Chhetry, A., Maharjan, P. et al. A laser ablated graphene-based flexible self-powered pressure sensor for human gestures and finger pulse monitoring. Nano Res. 12, 1789–1795 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-019-2433-5

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