%0 Journal Article
%T Polymeric foams for flexible and highly sensitive low-pressure capacitive sensors
%J -
%D 2019
%R https://doi.org/10.1038/s41528-019-0052-6
%X Flexible low-pressure sensors (£¿<10£¿kPa) are required in areas as diverse as blood-pressure monitoring, human¨Ccomputer interactions, robotics, and object detection. For applications, it is essential that these sensors combine flexibility, high sensitivity, robustness, and low production costs. Previous works involve surface micro-patterning, electronic amplification (OFET), and hydrogels. However, these solutions are limited as they involve complex processes, large bias voltages, large energy consumption, or are sensitive to evaporation. Here, we report a major advance to solve the challenge of scalable, efficient and robust e-skin. We present an unconventional capacitive sensor based on composite foam materials filled with conductive carbon black particles. Owing to the elastic buckling of the foam pores, the sensitivity exceeds 35£¿kPa£¿1 for pressure <0.2£¿kPa. These performances are one order of magnitude higher than the ones previously reported. These materials are low-cost, easy to prepare, and display high capacitance values, which are easy to measure using low-cost electronics. These materials pave the road for the implementation of e-skin in commercialized applications
%U https://www.nature.com/articles/s41528-019-0052-6