Highly stable flexible pressure sensors with a quasi-homogeneous composition and interlinked interfaces

TLDR

Electronic skins can sense mechanical stimuli, but their multilayered architectures often fail under extreme conditions due to mechanical mismatch and weak interlayer adhesion. This work aims to develop a flexible pressure sensor with tough interfaces that can withstand harsh mechanical environments. The sensor achieves toughness through a quasi‑homogeneous composition that matches interlayer mechanics and an interlinked micro‑coned interface that yields an interfacial toughness of 390 J m⁻². The resulting sensor exhibits exceptional signal stability over 100 000 rubbing cycles, remains functional after driving 2.6 km on a car tread, and integrates seamlessly with soft robots for reliable sensing during complex manipulations.

Abstract

Abstract Electronic skins (e-skins) are devices that can respond to mechanical stimuli and enable robots to perceive their surroundings. A great challenge for existing e-skins is that they may easily fail under extreme mechanical conditions due to their multilayered architecture with mechanical mismatch and weak adhesion between the interlayers. Here we report a flexible pressure sensor with tough interfaces enabled by two strategies: quasi-homogeneous composition that ensures mechanical match of interlayers, and interlinked microconed interface that results in a high interfacial toughness of 390 J·m −2 . The tough interface endows the sensor with exceptional signal stability determined by performing 100,000 cycles of rubbing, and fixing the sensor on a car tread and driving 2.6 km on an asphalt road. The topological interlinks can be further extended to soft robot-sensor integration, enabling a seamless interface between the sensor and robot for highly stable sensing performance during manipulation tasks under complicated mechanical conditions.