Polypyrrole/Silver Coaxial Nanowire Aero-Sponges for Temperature-Independent Stress Sensing and Stress-Triggered Joule Heating

To obtain ideal sensing materials with nearly zero temperature coefficient resistance (TCR) for self-temperature-compensated pressure sensors, we proposed an Incipient Network Conformal Growth (INCG) technology to prepare hybrid and elastic porous materials: the nanoparticles (NPs) are first dispersed in solvent to form an incipient network, another component is then introduced to coat the incipient network conformally via wet chemical route. The conformal coatings not only endow NPs with high stability but also offer them additional structural elasticity, meeting requirements for future generations of portable, compressive and flexible devices. The resultant polypyrrole/silver coaxial nanowire hybrid aero-sponges prepared via INCG technology have been processed into a piezoresistive sensor with highly sensing stability (low TCR 0.86 × 10–3/°C), sensitivity (0.33 kPa–1), short response time (1 ms), minimum detectable pressure (4.93 Pa) after suffering repeated stimuli, temperature change and electric heating. Moreover, a stress-triggered Joule heater can be also fabricated mainly by the PPy-Ag NW hybrid aero-sponges with nearly zero temperature coefficient.