Flexible piezoresistive sensor constructing from ILs/MWCNTs/PVDF ternary composite for high sensitivity and wide detection range

Recently, flexible pressure sensors rooting in piezoresistive mechanism have gained immense popularity due to their excellent application potential in the fields of software robotics, electronic skins and human health monitoring, etc. However, the trade-off between sensitivity and pressure range still remains challenging for the wide application of piezoresistive sensors. Herein, a novel flexible pressure sensor constructing from electrospun ionic liquids/Multi-walled carbon nanotubes/poly(vinylidene fluoride) (ILs/MWCNTs/PVDF) ternary composite that permits high-sensitivity detection over broad pressure range is implemented. Benefitting from the filamentous porous network coupled with urchin-shaped beads, the newly developed active ternary composite showed excellent compressibility and high sensitivity to pressure, endowing the resultant piezoresistive sensor with broad-pressure detection ranging from 1.0 Pa to 307 kPa with a maximum sensitivity of 0.075 kPa−1. Simultaneously, the proposed sensor present fast response/recovery time of 120/80 ms and high operation stability over 14000 cyclic pressings. Also, the feasibility of sensor in effectively monitoring various physiological signals, recognizing keyboards and expressing spatial pressure distribution is demonstrated, implying their great potential as viable high-performance pressure sensor.