A flexible ultra-sensitive triboelectric tactile sensor of wrinkled PDMS/MXene composite films for E-skin

Electronic skin (E-skin) based on tactile sensors plays an important role in monitoring daily health status and artificial intelligence (AI). High sensitivity and flexibility are highly demanded to simulate human skins. In this work, a flexible TENG, based on wrinkled PDMS/MXene composite films prepared by facile ultraviolet ozone (UVO) irradiation, was constructed as self-powered tactile sensor. The best sensitivity reaches 0.18 V/Pa during 10–80 Pa and 0.06 V/Pa during 80–800 Pa, respectively, higher than most of the other self-powered tactile sensors. The different sensitivity under low pressure and high pressure is related to wrinkles, illustrated by a simulation using COMSOL software combined with theory analysis. Our tactile sensors show good application prospects in monitoring complicated human physiological signal and imitating human touch sensation. Electronic skin (E-skin) based on tactile sensors plays an important role in monitoring daily health status and artificial intelligence (AL). High sensitivity and flexibility are highly demanded to simulate human skins. In this work, a flexible TENG, based on wrinkled PDMS/MXene composite films prepared by facile ultraviolet ozone (UVO) irradiation, was constructed as self-powered tactile sensor. The best sensitivity reaches 0.18 V/Pa during 10–80 Pa and 0.06 V/Pa during 80–800 Pa, respectively, higher than most of the other self-powered tactile sensors. The different sensitivity under low pressure and high pressure is related to wrinkles, illustrated by a simulation using COMSOL software combined with theory analysis. Our tactile sensors show good application prospects in monitoring complicated human physiological signal and imitating human touch sensation. [Display omitted] •One facile method was proposed to fabricate tactile sensors based on TENGs consisted of wrinkled PDMS/MXene.•Our tactile sensor has ultrahigh sensitivities during 10-800 Pa due to the doping and surface wrinkles of PDMS.•The tactile sensor can monitor complicated human physiological signals, and imitate human touch sensations.