Sea urchin-like microstructure pressure sensors with an ultra-broad range and high sensitivity

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 12; no. 1; p. 1776
• Main Authors: Wang, Xiu-man, Tao, Lu-qi, Yuan, Min, Wang, Ze-ping, Yu, Jiabing, Xie, Dingli, Luo, Feng, Chen, Xianping, Wong, ChingPing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 19.03.2021; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 140/146; 147/135; 147/137; 639/301/1005/1009; 639/301/357/354; 639/301/930/1032; Acetylene; Black carbon; Carbon; Carbon black; Electronic devices; Electronic engineering; Electronic equipment; Ferric oxide; Heterostructures; High pressure; Humanities and Social Sciences; multidisciplinary; Nanocomposites; Nanoparticles; Parameter sensitivity; Pressure; Pressure sensors; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Sensitivity; Sensors; Signal transduction; Synergistic effect; Tin dioxide
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-21958-y

Sensitivity and pressure range are two significant parameters of pressure sensors. Existing pressure sensors have difficulty achieving both high sensitivity and a wide pressure range. Therefore, we propose a new pressure sensor with a ternary nanocomposite Fe 2 O 3 /C@SnO 2 . The sea urchin-like Fe 2 O 3 structure promotes signal transduction and protects Fe 2 O 3 needles from mechanical breaking, while the acetylene carbon black improves the conductivity of Fe 2 O 3 . Moreover, one part of the SnO 2 nanoparticles adheres to the surfaces of Fe 2 O 3 needles and forms Fe 2 O 3 /SnO 2 heterostructures, while its other part disperses into the carbon layer to form SnO 2 @C structure. Collectively, the synergistic effects of the three structures (Fe 2 O 3 /C, Fe 2 O 3 /SnO 2 and SnO 2 @C) improves on the limited pressure response range of a single structure. The experimental results demonstrate that the Fe 2 O 3 /C@SnO 2 pressure sensor exhibits high sensitivity (680 kPa −1 ), fast response (10 ms), broad range (up to 150 kPa), and good reproducibility (over 3500 cycles under a pressure of 110 kPa), implying that the new pressure sensor has wide application prospects especially in wearable electronic devices and health monitoring. Pressure sensors with high sensitivity and large pressure range is crucial to their various applications in electronic engineering. Here, Wang et al. propose a new design based on a ternary nanocomposite material and show high pressure sensitivity of 680 kPa −1 and fast response of 10 ms up to 150 kPa.