Ultra‐Sensitive and Quick‐Responsive Hybrid‐Supercapacitive Iontronic Pressure Sensor for Intuitive Electronics and Artificial Tactile Applications

Abstract

Recent advances in supercapacitive pressure sensors based on iontronic film have a significant capacitive response and a low detection limit due to their large capacitance change resulting from electrical double layer (EDL) and these pressure sensors are used to detect a wide range of pressure with high resolution for various applications such as prosthesis, wearable devices, and robotics. Thus, the enhancements to the EDL capacitive response are significantly important challenges for advanced applications with outstanding performances. Herein, an ultra‐sensitive and quick‐responsive hybrid‐supercapacitive iontronic pressure sensor using a novel sensing mechanism and facile fabrication technique is reported to overcome the limitations of the existing iontronic pressure sensors. As a sensing material, conductive polymer and carbon nanotube are incorporated into the iontronic film, as pseudo‐ and EDL‐capacitive material, respectively. Moreover, vinyl silica nanoparticle (VSNP) is used to decrease the recovery time by making the iontronic film quick‐response. The developed hybrid‐supercapacitive pressure sensor exhibited an ultra‐high sensitivity of 301.5 kPa−1 over a wide pressure range of up to 63.3 kPa along with a fast recovery time of ≈32 ms. It is believed that the proposed hybrid‐supercapacitive mechanism in iontronic film will significantly enhance the performance of conventional iontronic pressure sensors.