Carbonized Cotton Fabric-Based Flexible Capacitive Pressure Sensor Using a Porous Dielectric Layer with Tilted Air Gaps

• Main Authors: Yelin Ko, Chi Cuong Vu, Jooyong Kim
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-06-01
• Series: Sensors
• Subjects: capacitive pressure sensor; carbonized cotton fabric (CCF); carbonization; porous dielectric layer; particle–template method; tilted air gaps
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/11/3895

Flexible and wearable pressure sensors have attracted significant attention owing to their roles in healthcare monitoring and human–machine interfaces. In this study, we introduce a wide-range, highly sensitive, stable, reversible, and biocompatible pressure sensor based on a porous Ecoflex with tilted air-gap-structured and carbonized cotton fabric (CCF) electrodes. The knitted structure of electrodes demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed sensor in enhancing the pressure-sensing performance in comparison to a woven structure due to the inherent properties of naturally generated space. In addition, the presence of tilted air gaps in the porous elastomer provided high deformability, thereby significantly improving the sensor sensitivity compared to other dielectric structures that have no or vertical air gaps. The combination of knitted CCF electrodes and the porous dielectric with tilted air gaps achieved a sensitivity of 24.5 × 10⁻³ kPa⁻¹ at 100 kPa, along with a wide detection range (1 MPa). It is also noteworthy that this novel method is low-cost, facile, scalable, and ecofriendly. Finally, the proposed sensor integrated into a smart glove detected human motions of grasping water cups, thus demonstrating its potential applications in wearable electronics.