Wearable Capacitive Tactile Sensor Based on Porous Dielectric Composite of Polyurethane and Silver Nanowire

In recent years, the implementation of wearable and biocompatible tactile sensing elements with sufficient response into healthcare, medical detection, and electronic skin/amputee prosthetics has been an intriguing but challenging quest. Here, we propose a flexible all-polyurethane capacitive tactil...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Polymers 2023-09, Vol.15 (18), p.3816
Main Authors: Hsieh, Gen-Wen, Chien, Chih-Yang
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biocompatibility
Carbon
Compressibility
Dielectrics
Elastomers
Electrodes
Ethanol
External pressure
Implants, Artificial
Morphology
Nanoparticles
Nanowires
Polymers
Polyurethane resins
Polyurethanes
Pressure distribution
Prostheses
Prosthesis
Scanning electron microscopy
Sensors
Silver
Tactile sensors (robotics)
Wearable technology
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Summary:In recent years, the implementation of wearable and biocompatible tactile sensing elements with sufficient response into healthcare, medical detection, and electronic skin/amputee prosthetics has been an intriguing but challenging quest. Here, we propose a flexible all-polyurethane capacitive tactile sensor that utilizes a salt crystal-templated porous elastomeric framework filling with silver nanowire as the composite dielectric material, sandwiched by a set of polyurethane films covering silver nanowire networks as electrodes. With the aids of these cubic air pores and conducting nanowires, the fabricated capacitive tactile sensor provides pronounced enhancement of both sensor compressibility and effective relative dielectric permittivity across a broad pressure regime (from a few Pa to tens of thousands of Pa). The fabricated silver nanowire–porous polyurethane sensor presents a sensitivity improvement of up to 4−60 times as compared to a flat polyurethane device. An ultrasmall external stimulus as light as 3 mg, equivalent to an applied pressure of ∼0.3 Pa, can also be clearly recognized. Our all-polyurethane capacitive tactile sensor based on a porous dielectric framework hybrid with conducting nanowire reveals versatile potential applications in physiological activity detection, arterial pulse monitoring, and spatial pressure distribution, paving the way for wearable electronics and artificial skin.
ISSN:2073-4360
2073-4360
DOI:10.3390/polym15183816