journal article·2022-05Open access

Skin‐Inspired Capacitive Stress Sensor with Large Dynamic Range via Bilayer Liquid Metal Elastomers

Jiayi Yang, Ki Yoon Kwon, Shreyas Kanetkar, Ruizhe Xing, Praneshnandan Nithyanandam, Yang Li, Woojin Jung, Wei Gong, Mary Tuman, Qingchen Shen, Meixiang Wang, Tushar Ghosh, Kony Chatterjee, Xinxin Wang, Dongguang Zhang, Tae‐il Kim, Vi Khanh Truong, Michael D. Dickey

Advanced Materials Technologies· Volume 7· Issue 5

Abstract

Abstract Soft devices that sense touch are important for prosthetics, soft robotics, and electronic skins. One way to sense touch is to use a capacitor consisting of a soft dielectric layer sandwiched between two electrodes. Compressing the capacitor brings the electrodes closer together and thereby increases capacitance. Ideally, sensors of touch should have both large sensitivity and the ability to measure a wide range of stress (dynamic range). Although skin has such capabilities, it remains difficult to achieve both sensitivity and dynamic range in a single manmade sensor. Inspired by skin, this work reports a soft capacitive pressure sensor based on a bilayer of liquid metal elastomer foam (B‐LMEF). The B‐LMEF consists of an elastomer slab (elastic modulus: ≈655 kPa) laminated with a soft liquid metal elastomer foam (LMEF, elastic modulus: ≈7 kPa). The LMEF deforms at small stresses (<10 kPa), and both layers deform at large stresses (>10 kPa). The B‐LMEF has high sensitivity (0.073 kPa–1) at small stress and can operate over a large range of stress (200 kPa), which leads to a large dynamic range (≈4.1 × 105). Additionally, the elastomer slab has a large energy dissipation coefficient; the skin uses this property to cushion the human body from external stress and strain.
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline

Research context

OpenAlex topics: Advanced Sensor and Energy Harvesting Materials · Tactile and Sensory Interactions · Dielectric materials and actuators

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering North Carolina State University Raleigh NC 27695 USA

School of Chemical Engineering Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) Suwon 16419 Korea

State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering School of Chemical Engineering and Technology Tianjin University Tianjin 300072 China

Key Laboratory for Wide Bandgap Semi‐Conductor Materials and Devices School of Microelectronics Xidian University Xi'an 710071 China

State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials College of Materials Science and Engineering Donghua University Shanghai 201620 China

College of Design North Carolina State University Raleigh NC 27695 USA

State Key Laboratory of Metal Matrix Composites School of Materials Science and Engineering Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai 200240 China

Department of Textile Engineering Chemistry and Science Wilson College of Textiles North Carolina State University Raleigh NC 27695 USA

College of Mechanical and Vehicle Engineering Taiyuan University of Technology Taiyuan 030024 China

School of Science RMIT University Melbourne VIC 3001 Australia

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China · Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy · Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology

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