Recent Study Advances in Flexible Sensors Based on Polyimides

• Published in: Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 23; no. 24; p. 9743
• Main Authors: Zhang, Tianyong, Chai, Yamei, Wang, Suisui, Yu, Jianing, Jiang, Shuang, Zhu, Wenxuan, Fang, Zihao, Li, Bin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 10.12.2023; MDPI
• Subjects: Cellulose; colorless polyimide; Design; Dielectric properties; Electrodes; electrospinning; Equipment and supplies; Fiber optics; flexible substrate; Graphene; Graphite; Heat resistance; Humidity; Manufacturing; Moisture absorption; photosensitive polyimide; polyimide; Polyimides; Polymers; Review; sensing; Sensors; colorless polyimide; sensing; polyimide; electrospinning; flexible substrate; fiber Bragg grating; photosensitive polyimide; triboelectric nanogenerator; laser-induced graphene
• ISSN: 1424-8220; 1424-8220
• DOI: 10.3390/s23249743

With the demand for healthy life and the great advancement of flexible electronics, flexible sensors are playing an irreplaceably important role in healthcare monitoring, wearable devices, clinic treatment, and so on. In particular, the design and application of polyimide (PI)-based sensors are emerging swiftly. However, the tremendous potential of PI in sensors is not deeply understood. This review focuses on recent studies in advanced applications of PI in flexible sensors, including PI nanofibers prepared by electrospinning as flexible substrates, PI aerogels as friction layers in triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG), PI films as sensitive layers based on fiber Bragg grating (FBG) in relative humidity (RH) sensors, photosensitive PI (PSPI) as sacrificial layers, and more. The simple laser-induced graphene (LIG) technique is also introduced in the application of PI graphitization to graphene. Finally, the prospect of PIs in the field of electronics is proposed in the review.