Preparation and Sensing Properties of Polyurethane-Carbon Nanotubes@Bismuth Antimonide Hybrid Aerogel

doi:10.15541/jim20250286

Abstract

Abstract: With the rapid development of intelligent equipment such as bionic humanoid robots, flexible tactile sensors have attracted more and more attentions for their bionic haptic behaviors similar to human fingers. However, the existing sensing materials used for assembling multimodal flexible tactile sensors still lack the high-selective response capabilities, resulting in the cross-interference phenomenon of various output signals, which is difficult to meet the lightweight and integrated requirements of microsystems. Hence, in this study, a new-style polyurethane-carbon nanotubes@bismuth antimonide (WPU-CNT@Bi₂Te₃) hybrid aerogel was designed and prepared, which exhibits a maximum compressive strain of 60% and a compressive strength of 9.4 kPa via the optimization of component ratios. Furtherly, according to the independent sensing principles of the piezoresistive effect of CNTs to mechanical pressure stimuli, and the thermoelectric effect of Bi₂Te₃ to changes in the external temperature, this hybrid aerogel derived flexible tactile sensor achieves high sensitivity (GF value is -1.28 kPa^-1, temperature response sensitivity of 1.2 K^-1, minimum response temperature difference of 0.4 K) and rapid response behaviors (response and recovery times of 0.14 s and 0.18 s for pressure, optimal response time of 0.28 s for temperature) to temperature and pressure, with high sensing stability (no degradation after 1300 thermal cycles) and non-mutual interference behaviors, endowing the equipped robotic hand with the perception capability to recognize both the hardness and temperature of various objects.

Key words: aerogel, flexible sensor, piezoresistive effect, thermoelectric effect

CLC Number:

TB332
O613

CAO Ying, PENG Lu, XIA Shuang, BAI Ju, ZHANG Ting, LI Tie. Preparation and Sensing Properties of Polyurethane-Carbon Nanotubes@Bismuth Antimonide Hybrid Aerogel[J]. Journal of Inorganic Materials, DOI: 10.15541/jim20250286.

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