Flexible piezoelectric pressure sensor with high sensitivity for electronic skin using near-field electrohydrodynamic direct-writing method

Flexible pressure sensors based on piezoelectric materials have been widely studied because of their wide application in electronic skin. However, the traditional flexible piezoelectric pressure sensor has defect, crack and brittleness, which restrict the performance of the flexible piezoelectric pressure sensor. The near-field electrohydrodynamic direct-writing method was proposed to fabricate the PVDF/SWCNTs thin film of the piezoelectric pressure sensor. The process method of moving rectangle trajectory was used to directly write the micro/nano fiber array to fabricate the piezoelectric pressure active thin film, which made the piezoelectric thin film have the structure consistency and improved the piezoelectric performance. The flexible piezoelectric pressure sensor has high sensitivity (15.68 kPa−1) and fast response (66 ms). The sensor could be well used to monitor human motion recognition and subtle physiological signals, which indicates that the fabricated sensor has great potential application in human motion monitoring and wearable devices. [Display omitted] •PVDF/SWCNTs thin film was fabricated using near-field electrohydrodynamic direct-writing method.•PVDF/SWCNTs micro/nano fiber array was prepared by moving rectangle trajectory method.•The flexible piezoelectric pressure sensor has high sensitivity (15.68 kpa-1) and fast response capability (66 ms).•The flexible piezoelectric pressure sensor is suitable for human motion monitoring and subtle physiological signals recognition.