Silver nanowire-embedded PDMS with a multiscale structure for a highly sensitive and robust flexible pressure sensor

The development of highly sensitive pressure sensors with a low-cost and facile fabrication technique is desirable for electronic skins and wearable sensing devices. Here a low-cost and facile fabrication strategy to obtain multiscale-structured elastomeric electrodes and a highly sensitive and robust flexible pressure sensor is presented. The principles of spontaneous buckle formation of the PDMS surface and the embedding of silver nanowires are used to fabricate the multiscale-structured elastomeric electrode. By laminating the multiscale-structured elastomeric electrode onto the dielectric layer/bottom electrode template, the pressure sensor can be obtained. The pressure sensor is based on the capacitive sensing mechanism and shows high sensitivity (>3.8 kPa(-1)), fast response and relaxation time (