Highly sensitive, flexible, green synthesized graphene/biomass aerogels for pressure sensing application

Abstract With the advent of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) age, flexible sensors are highly desired in various intelligent systems. However, most of them are based on petrochemical materials and the inevitable use of toxic chemicals during their manufacturing, which may lead to potential damage to human health. Herein, we report a green and facile strategy to fabricate pressure sensors based on bacteria cellulose and caffeic acid-reduced graphene oxide (rGO) composite aerogel. Benefiting from the three-dimensional (3D) hierarchical porous structure (a porosity of ~98.9%), the pressure aerogel sensor exhibits integrated performance of high sensitivity (13.89 kPa−1), ultralow limit of detection (47.2 Pa), and fast response (120 ms), thus clearly detecting subtle strain and monitoring human physical motions. Remarkably, the aerogel possesses excellent reproducibility in 1000 cycles of pressure loading-unloading. Hence, the strategy of using natural resources to fabricate flexible functional materials is highly possible to apply in flexible electronics field.