Flexible capacitive pressure sensor based on multi-walled carbon nanotube electrodes

Na Shao; Jian Wu; Xing Yang; Jialin Yao; Yunsheng Shi; Zhaoying Zhou

Flexible capacitive pressure sensor based on multi-walled carbon nanotube electrodes

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Author(s): Na Shao ^{1, 2, 3} ; Jian Wu ³ ; Xing Yang ^{1, 2} ; Jialin Yao ^{1, 2, 4} ; Yunsheng Shi ^{1, 2, 5} ; Zhaoying Zhou ^{1, 2}
- Affiliations: 1: State Key Laboratory of Precision Measurement Technology and Instrumentation, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China ;
  2: Department of Precision Instruments, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China ;
  3: School of Information Engineering, Nanchang Hangkong University, Nanchang 330063, People's Republic of China ;
  4: School of Aeronautical Manufacturing Engineering, Nanchang Hangkong University, Nanchang 330063, People's Republic of China ;
  5: Department of Electronics and Optics Engineering, Mechanical Engineering College, Hebei 050003, People's Republic of China
Source: Volume 12, Issue 1, January 2017, p. 45 – 48
DOI: 10.1049/mnl.2016.0529 , Online ISSN 1750-0443

This is an open access article published by the IET under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/)

Received 17/08/2016, Accepted 16/09/2016, Published 01/01/2017

Flexible pressure sensors offer the advantages of flexibility, low cost, and easy to large area fabrication, and they have wide applications in many fields. This work proposes a flexible capacitive pressure sensor that exhibits a sandwich-like structure, a good performance, and a simple process. Multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWNT) is used to fabricate the two electrodes of the sensor because this low cost material possesses good mechanical and electronic properties. Meanwhile, MWNT naturally forms numerous micro–nano structures that can enhance the sensitivity of a sensor. In addition, the dielectric layer of the sensor composed of parylene C (poly(chloro-p-xylylene)) is sandwiched between the two electrodes. The experimental results show that the pressure sensor demonstrates high sensitivity and a rapid response. The average sensitivity is 1.33 kPa^–1 at a pressure that ranges from 0 to 758 Pa and the response time reach to millisecond level. Given that low cost, good property and simple process, the sensor has wide application prospects in electronic skins, health monitoring devices, and other wearable electronic products.

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