Nowadays, the integration of easy production, simple structure, high sensitivity, and multifunctionality is the developing tendency for flexible sensors. Herein we report a facile manufacture of a highly flexible, sensitive, and multifunctional dual-mode sensor with an ultrasimple structure by directly attaching magnetic iron rubber (IR) onto the surface of carbon aerogel (CA) derived from melamine foam. The dual-mode CA/IR sensor exhibits high sensitivities of 5.6 kPa-1 and 1.6·10-3 Oe-1, respectively, toward pressure and magnetic field in a wide frequency ranging from 0.1 to 10 Hz, which are higher than those of the existing flexible pressure/magnetism sensors. The multifunctionality of the dual-mode CA/IR sensor is demonstrated by monitoring blood pulse, human breath, balloon volume, and thoracic volume via pressure and magnetism sensing or their combination. Due to its simple structure and high sensitivities, the dual-mode sensor is employed as the building block to create a direction-recognizable sensor for identifying the directions of pressure and magnetic field for the awareness of surrounding barriers that are of practical importance in sophisticated situations such as autonomous artificial intelligence, autodriving and robotics, and so on.
Keywords: detecting range; dual-mode sensor; flexibility; magnetism; pressure; sensitivity.