Highly Sensitive Pseudocapacitive Iontronic Pressure Sensor with Broad Sensing Range

Abstract

Highlights: The iontronic pressure sensor achieved an ultrahigh sensitivity (Smin > 200 kPa−1, Smax > 45,000 kPa−1).The iontronic pressure sensor exhibited a broad sensing range of over 1.4 MPa.Pseudocapacitive iontronic pressure sensor using MXene was proposed. ABSTRACT: Flexible pressure sensors are unprecedentedly studied on monitoring human physical activities and robotics. Simultaneously, improving the response sensitivity and sensing range of flexible pressure sensors is a great challenge, which hinders the devices’ practical application. Targeting this obstacle, we developed a Ti3C2Tx-derived iontronic pressure sensor (TIPS) by taking the advantages of the high intercalation pseudocapacitance under high pressure and rationally designed structural configuration. TIPS achieved an ultrahigh sensitivity (Smin > 200 kPa−1, Smax > 45,000 kPa−1) in a broad sensing range of over 1.4 MPa and low limit of detection of 20 Pa as well as stable long-term working durability for 10,000 cycles. The practical application of TIPS in physical activity monitoring and flexible robot manifested its versatile potential. This study provides a demonstration for exploring pseudocapacitive materials for building flexible iontronic sensors with ultrahigh sensitivity and sensing range to advance the development of high-performance wearable electronics. [Figure not available: see fulltext.]