Elastomeric nanowire composite for flexible pressure sensors with tunable sensitivity

Flexible pressure sensors can be applied to human-machine interfaces, next-generation touch interfaces for wearable displays, and real-time blood pressure monitoring. For these applications, pressure sensors must have high pressure sensitivity, flexibility, stability, and tunable sensitivity, like the human skin. Reported in this paper is a highly sensitive and flexible pressure sensor with tunable sensitivity. Silver-nanowires-embedded Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), the elastomeric nanowire composite, was integrated with a polymeric dielectric layer and a printed electrode to obtain a capacitive pressure sensor. By controlling the mixing ratio of the PDMS matrix of the nanowire composite, the pressure sensitivity of the sensor can be easily tuned. The sensor also showed high sensitivity (sensitivity > 3 kPa(-1)) and high bending stability.