A Highly Stretchable Transparent Self-Powered Triboelectric Tactile Sensor with Metallized Nanofibers for Wearable Electronics

Xiandi Wang; Yufei Zhang; Xiaojia Zhang; Zhihao Huo; Xiaoyi Li; Miaoling Que; Zhengchun Peng; Hui Wang; Caofeng Pan

doi:10.1002/adma.201706738

A Highly Stretchable Transparent Self-Powered Triboelectric Tactile Sensor with Metallized Nanofibers for Wearable Electronics

Adv Mater. 2018 Mar;30(12):e1706738. doi: 10.1002/adma.201706738. Epub 2018 Feb 7.

Authors

Xiandi Wang^{1

2}, Yufei Zhang^{1

2

3}, Xiaojia Zhang^{1

2}, Zhihao Huo^{1

2}, Xiaoyi Li^{1

2}, Miaoling Que^{1

2}, Zhengchun Peng⁴, Hui Wang³, Caofeng Pan^{1

2

4}

Affiliations

¹ CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100083, P. R. China.
² School of Nanoscience and Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, P. R. China.
³ Key Laboratory of Aerospace Materials and Performance (Ministry of Education), School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, 100191, P. R. China.
⁴ College of Optoelectronic Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, P. R. China.

PMID: 29411908
DOI: 10.1002/adma.201706738

Abstract

Recently, the quest for new highly stretchable transparent tactile sensors with large-scale integration and rapid response time continues to be a great impetus to research efforts to expand the promising applications in human-machine interactions, artificial electronic skins, and smart wearable equipment. Here, a self-powered, highly stretchable, and transparent triboelectric tactile sensor with patterned Ag-nanofiber electrodes for detecting and spatially mapping trajectory profiles is reported. The Ag-nanofiber electrodes demonstrate high transparency (>70%), low sheet resistance (1.68-11.1 Ω □^-1 ), excellent stretchability, and stability (>100% strain). Based on the electrode patterning and device design, an 8 × 8 triboelectric sensor matrix is fabricated, which works well under high strain owing to the effect of the electrostatic induction. Using cross-locating technology, the device can execute more rapid tactile mapping, with a response time of 70 ms. In addition, the object being detected can be made from any commonly used materials or can even be human hands, indicating that this device has widespread potential in tactile sensing and touchpad technology applications.

Keywords: metallized nanofiber; self-powered; stretchable; tactile sensor; transparent.