Bioinspired sandwich-structured pressure sensors based on graphene oxide/hydroxyl functionalized carbon nanotubes/bovine serum albumin nanocomposites for wearable textile electronics

Herein, inspired by the tactile perception architecture of human skin, including the epidermis and touch receptor, skin-like flexible pressure sensors were fabricated via the assembly of a sandwich structure composed of an encapsulation layer (bionic epidermis), a piezoresistive sensing layer (bionic touch receptor), and a transducer layer. The piezoresistive sensing layer composed of graphene oxide/ hydroxyl functionalized carbon nanotubes/bovine serum albumin (GO/CNTs/BSA) nanocomposites with wavy microstructures was fabricated using layer-by-layer (LBL) self-assembly technology. The mechanisms of hydrogen bond and electrostatic interactions may improve the adhesion efficacy of the textile substrate with conductive nanomaterials. Based on the skin-like architecture for pressure sensing, the sensor exhibited the sensing characteristics, including wide pressure-detecting range (0∼171 kPa), high sensitivity (2.456 kPa−1), rapid response/recovery time (225 ms and 50 ms), and outstanding durability (2000 cycles). Our work provide references for textile-based electronic devices that can be applied to intelligent robotics, wearable monitoring, and man–machine interaction.