Multistimuli‐Responsive Artificial Skin with Dual Output of Photoelectric Signals

• Published in: Macromolecular materials and engineering Vol. 306; no. 6
• Main Authors: Li, Lei, Cheng, Long‐Xiang, Yang, Liu, Zhang, Jun‐Cheng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Weinheim John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.06.2021
• Subjects: Bionics; Coated electrodes; electrical polymers; Mechanoluminescence; multilayer structures; Multilayers; Nanogenerators; Nanowires; optical materials and properties; Optical properties; Photochromism; Photoelectricity; Photoluminescence; Polyamide resins; polymers; Stimulation; Thermoluminescence; Urethane thermoplastic elastomers; Wearable technology
• ISSN: 1438-7492; 1439-2054
• DOI: 10.1002/mame.202100017

Artificial skins that respond to external stimulation play a vital role in bionic medicine, intelligent robots, and wearable devices. However, the current artificial skins universally suffer from difficulties in converting various external stimulation to dual output of photoelectric signals. Herein, a multistimuli‐responsive artificial skin with dual output of photoelectric signals is developed, which generates photochromism, multiluminescence, and electrical signals under various external stimulation including optical, thermal, and mechanical excitation. The artificial skin is constructed by a thermoplastic polyurethanes film embedded with inorganic particles with multiple optical properties and an electrospinning polyamide film coating with silver nanowires as electrode. The inorganic particles with multiple optical properties are used to produce optical outputs of photochromism, photoluminescence, thermoluminescence, and mechanoluminescence under the photo‐, thermal, and mechanical stimulation. The whole multilayer structure serves as single‐electrode triboelectric nanogenerator, which generates electrical outputs under the mechanical stimulation. The results are expected to provide a new idea for the development of flexible artificial skins with multistimuli‐responsive characteristics. A multistimuli‐responsive artificial skin enabling photoelectric dual output is designed by combining multioptical functional particles and single‐electrode triboelectric nanogenerator (S‐TENG) structure. The artificial skin is composed of multioptical functional particles/thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) film and Nylon@Ag nanowires (NWs) film. Under the photo‐, thermal, and mechanical stimulations, the artificial skin can produce photochromism, photoluminescence, thermoluminescence, mechanoluminescence, and triboelectric signals, respectively.