Compressible and elastic carbon materials offer many advantages and have promising applications in various electronic devices. However, fabricating carbon materials with super elasticity, fatigue resistance, and high and wide-range linear sensitivity for pressure or strain remains a great challenge. Herein, a facile and sustainable route is developed to fabricate a carbon aerogel with not only superior mechanical performances but also exceptionally high and wide-range linear sensitivity by using chitosan as a renewable carbon source and cellulose nanocrystal as a nanoreinforcement or support. The as-prepared carbon aerogel with wave-shaped layers shows high compressibility, super elasticity, stable strain-current response, and excellent fatigue resistance (94% height retention after 50 000 cycles). More importantly, it demonstrates both an ultrahigh sensitivity of 103.5 kPa-1 and a very wide linear range of 0-18 kPa. In addition, the carbon aerogel has a very low detection limit (1.0 Pa for pressure and 0.05% for strain). The carbon aerogel also can be bended to detect a small angle change. These superiorities render its applications in various wearable devices.
Keywords: carbon aerogel; cellulose nanocrystal; chitosan; compressible; sensitivity.