Fibrous Pressure Sensor with Unique Resistance Increase under Partial Compression: Coaxial Wet-Spun...

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Nanotechnology
• Sensor Technology

Background:

• Developing fiber-shaped resistive pressure sensors is challenging due to the series circuit nature of fibers.
• Conventional pressure sensors often show decreased resistance under compression, which is difficult to achieve in a fiber format.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a new mechanism and design for fiber-based pressure sensors.
• To develop a fiber-shaped resistive pressure sensor with enhanced sensitivity and novel applications.

Main Methods:

• Coaxial wet-spinning to create a multi-walled fiber with a thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU)/TiO2 outer layer and a graphene nanoplatelet (GNP) inner core.
• Fabrication of a fiber-based sensor exhibiting increasing resistance under compression due to microcracks in its multi-wall structure.
• Evaluation of pressure sensitivity using 3D-printed indenters and application in remote motion detection and press/slide differentiation.

Main Results:

• The developed fiber-shaped sensor (TGTMW fiber) shows rising resistance under compression, a novel mechanism for fiber pressure sensors.
• Demonstrated excellent performance in pressure sensitivity and differentiation of various compression modes.
• Achieved ≈99.6% recognition accuracy for 12 different compression modes using a CNN-based machine learning algorithm and visualization software.

Conclusions:

• This work proposes a new mechanism and design for fiber-based pressure sensors, overcoming previous limitations.
• The developed sensor shows significant potential for applications in remote sensing, human-computer interaction, and wearable devices.
• The integration of machine learning further enhances the sensor's capabilities for complex data analysis and pattern recognition.