Pressure‐Temperature Dual‐Parameter Flexible Sensors Based on Conformal Printing of Conducting Polymer PEDOT:PSS on Microstructured Substrate

Flexible sensors play an important role in collecting stimuli information and sending them to a central processing unit or cloud for analysis and decision‐making. As much information is needed to be collected, the fabrication of multiparameter flexible sensors is becoming increasingly urgent. To this end, conducting polymer‐based composites have been proven as promising materials for developing pressure‐temperature dual‐parameter sensors. However, fabrication of ideal dual‐parameter sensors with fully decoupled pressure‐temperature readings, good sensitivity, and a simple preparation process remain challenges. Here, a strategy of fabricating a pressure‐temperature dual‐parameter sensor based on conformal printing of conducting polymer poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) on the surface of microstructured polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrate is demonstrated. It is found that secondary doped PEDOT:PSS provides temperature‐independent conductivity. Combined with the sea‐island microstructured PDMS substrate, a screen‐printed flexible sensor demonstrates fully decoupled pressure‐temperature reading ability, competitive sensitivity, and good stability. The excellent sensing properties of the devices, with a maximum pressure sensitivity of 134.25 kPa−1 and linear response region over 300 kPa as well as highly sensitive temperature sensing for finger touch, together with their unique advantages of low‐cost and large‐area fabrication, make the printed flexible dual‐parameter sensors promising applications in electric‐skin (e‐skin), human‐machine interaction, and robotics. This study demonstrates dual‐parameter flexible sensors prepared by a conformal printing method based on conductive polymer PEDOT:PSS on the surface of a multilayered microstructured PDMS substrate. The sensors are low‐cost, large‐area, multifunctional flexible with high sensitivity for temperature/pressure dual‐parameter sensing without cross‐talk. It has the potential to be applied in fields such as intelligent robots.