A stretchable all-nanofiber iontronic pressure sensor

Abstract

Flexible pressure sensors with high stretchability, sensitivity, and stability are undoubtedly urgently required for potential applications in intelligent soft robots, human-machine interaction, health monitoring, and other fields. However, most current flexible pressure sensors are unable to endure large deformation and are prone to performance degradation or even failure during frequent operation due to their multilayered structures. Here, we propose a stretchable all-nanofiber iontronic pressure sensor that is composed of ionic nanofiber membranes used as dielectric layers and liquid metal used as electrodes. This sensor exhibits a high sensitivity of 1.08 kPa-1 over a wide range of 0-300 kPa, with a fast response-relaxation time of about 18/22 ms and excellent stability. The high sensitivity comes from the electric double layer formed at the ionic film/electrode interface, while high stretchability and stability are enabled by in-situ encapsulated all-nanofiber structures. As a proof of concept, a prototype sensor array is integrated into a soft pneumatic gripper, demonstrating its capability of pressure perception and object recognition during the grasping process. Thus, the scheme provides another excellent strategy to fabricate stretchable pressure sensors with superb performance in terms of high stretchability, sensitivity, and stability.