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Porous fiber paper and 3D patterned electrodes composed high-sensitivity flexible piezoresistive sensor for physiological signal monitoring

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Abstract

The research on flexible pressure sensors has drawn widespread attention in recent years, especially in the fields of health care and intelligent robots. In practical applications, the sensitivity of sensors directly affects the precision and integrity of weak pressure signals. Here, a pressure sensor with high sensitivity and a wide measurement range composed of porous fiber paper and 3D patterned electrodes is proposed. Multi-walled carbon nanotubes with excellent conductivity were evenly sprayed on the fiber paper to form the natural spatial conducting networks, while the copper-deposited polydimethylsiloxane films with micro-pyramids array were used as electrodes and flexible substrates. Increased conducting paths between electrodes and fibers can be obtained when high-density micro-pyramids fall into the porous structures of the fiber paper under external pressure, thereby promoting the pressure sensor to show an ultra-high sensitivity of 17.65 kPa−1 in the pressure range of 0–2 kPa, 16 times that of the device without patterned electrodes. Besides, the sensor retains a high sensitivity of 2.06 kPa−1 in an ultra-wide measurement range of 150 kPa. Moreover, the sensor can detect various physiological signals, including pulse and voice, while attached to the human skin. This work provides a novel strategy to significantly improve the sensitivity and measurement range of flexible pressure sensors, as well as demonstrates attractive applications in physiological signal monitoring.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Science and Technology on Electronic Test and Measurement Laboratory, North University of China, Taiyuan, 030051, China

    XiaoJuan Hou, JiXin Zhong, Jian He, ChangJun Yang, JunBin Yu, JiLiang Mu, WenPing Geng & XiuJian Chou

  2. School of Mechanical Engineering, North University of China, Taiyuan, 030051, China

    LinYu Mei

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  1. XiaoJuan Hou
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  2. JiXin Zhong
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  3. Jian He
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  4. ChangJun Yang
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  5. JunBin Yu
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Correspondence to Jian He.

Additional information

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant Nos. 2019YFE0120300, 2019YFF0301802), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 52175554, 62101513, 51975542), Natural Science Foundation of Shanxi Province (Grant No. 201801D121152), Shanxi “1331 Project” Key Subject Construction (Grant No. 1331KSC), National Defense Fundamental Research Project, and Research Project Supported by ShanXi Scholarship Council of China (Grant No. 2020-109).

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Hou, X., Zhong, J., He, J. et al. Porous fiber paper and 3D patterned electrodes composed high-sensitivity flexible piezoresistive sensor for physiological signal monitoring. Sci. China Technol. Sci. 65, 1169–1178 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-021-1993-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-021-1993-9

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