Synergistic piezoelectricity enhanced BaTiO3/polyacrylonitrile elastomer-based highly sensitive pressure sensor for intelligent sensing and posture recognition applications

Designing stretchable and skin-conformal self-powered sensors for intelligent sensing and posture recognition is challenging. Here, based on a multi-force mixing and vulcanization process, as well as synergistically piezoelectricity of BaTiO3 and polyacrylonitrile, an all-in-one, stretchable, and self-powered elastomer-based piezo-pressure sensor (ASPS) with high sensitivity is reported. The ASPS presents excellent sensitivity (0.93 V/104 Pa of voltage and 4.92 nA/104 Pa of current at a pressure of 10–200 kPa) and high durability (over 10,000 cycles). Moreover, the ASPS exhibits a wide measurement range, good linearity, rapid response time, and stable frequency response. All components were fabricated using silicone, affording satisfactory skin-conformality for sensing postures. Through cooperation with a homemade circuit and artificial intelligence algorithm, an information processing strategy was proposed to realize intelligent sensing and recognition. The home-made circuit achieves the acquisition and wireless transmission of ASPS signals (transmission distance up to 50 m), and the algorithm realizes the classification and identification of ASPS signals (accuracy up to 99.5%). This study proposes not only a novel fabrication method for developing self-powered sensors, but also a new information processing strategy for intelligent sensing and recognition, which offers significant application potential in human—machine interaction, physiological analysis, and medical research.