A highly sensitive piezoresistive pressure sensor based on graphene oxide/polypyrrole@polyurethane sponge

Abstract

In this work, polyurethane sponge is employed as the structural substrate of the sensor. Graphene oxide (GO) and polypyrrole (PPy) are alternately coated on the sponge fiber skeleton by charge layer-by-layer assembly (LBL) to form a multilayer composite conductive layer to prepare the piezoresistive sensors. The 2D GO sheet is helpful for the formation of the GO layers, and separating the PPy layer. The prepared GO/PPy@PU (polyurethane) conductive sponges still had high compressibility. The unique fragmental microstructure and synergistic effect made the sensor reach a high sensitivity of 0.79 kPa−1. The sensor could detect as low as 75 Pa, exhibited response time less than 70 ms and reproducibility over 10,000 cycles, and could be used for different types of motion detection. This work opens up new opportunities for high-performance piezoresistive sensors and other electronic devices for GO/PPy composites.