Ultralow voltage operation and microwatt power consumption MXene based pressure sensors with excellent sensing performance

Abstract

Nowadays, smart flexible and wearable electronic devices are experiencing rapid development. As one of core components, flexible pressure sensor has attracted more attentions. High sensitivity, broad detection range and fast response of the pressure sensor with a low power consumption are urgently needed for various practical scenes but it remains a great challenge to simultaneously achieve these merits. Herein, a periodical structured MXene/PDMS composite is explored to construct high performance flexible piezoresistive sensor. The developed sensor has ultrahigh sensitivity (70.6 kPa⁻¹), fast response (18 ms), broad detection range (up to 436 kPa) as well as outstanding long-term stability (9700 cycles). More significantly, the sensor shows a low operation voltage (0.01 V) and low power consumption (Max. 120 μW), which successfully powered by a thermoelectric generator using tiny temperature difference between human skin and environment. We have also combined the sensor with an artificial neural network model and realized a high accuracy recognition (97%) to the Morse code. The results indicate that periodical structured MXene/PDMS sensors hold a great potential in practical applications such as human motion monitoring, robotic control and encrypted communication. Also, this work opens a new way toward highly sensitive, broad-range-response, and multifunctional self-powered energy-saving wearable electronics.