Flexible pressure sensors have attracted a considerable amount of attention in various fields including robotics and healthcare applications, among others. However, it remains significantly challenging to design and fabricate a flexible capacitive pressure sensor with a quite broad linearity detection range due to the nonlinear stress–strain relation of the hyperelastic polymer-based dielectric material. Along these lines, in this work, a novel flexible capacitive pressure sensor with microstructured composite dielectric layer (MCDL) is demonstrated. The MCDL was prepared by enforcing a solvent-free planetary mixing and replica molding method, while the performances of the flexible capacitive pressure sensor were characterized by performing various experimental tests. More specifically, the proposed capacitive pressure sensor with 4.0 wt % cone-type MCDL could perceive external pressure loads with a broad detection range of 0–1.3 MPa, which yielded a high sensitivity value of 3.97 × 10⁻³ kPa⁻¹ in a relative wide linear range of 0–600 kPa. Moreover, the developed pressure sensor exhibited excellent repeatability during the application of 1000 consecutive cycles and a fast response time of 150 ms. Finally, the developed sensor was utilized for wearable monitoring and spatial pressure distribution sensing applications, which indicates the great perspectives of our approach for potential use in the robotics and healthcare fields.

Flexible pressure sensors have attracted significant attention in both academic and industrial fields. However, how to design and fabricate a flexible pressure sensor having high sensitivity and good linearity in a wide detection range is still a challenge. To address this challenge, this article proposes a flexible piezoresistive pressure sensor with a multilayer structure consisting of microstructured composite layers (MCLs), which are sandwiched by indium tin oxide-polyethylene terephthalate electrodes and encapsulated by an ultrasoft elastomer frame. The preparation of the conductive composite and the fabrication procedure of the pressure sensor are presented. Due to the point-to-point hemisphere microstructures of the multilayer composite layers, the pressure sensor can perceive pressure with a sensitivity of 7.66 kPa ⁻¹ in a range of 0–583 kPa. Besides, the proposed sensor features good linearity of 5.86% and an $R^{2}$ of 0.99. The developed pressure sensor has excellent repeatability of 500 cycles and a fast response time of 80 ms. The proposed sensor is verified by the experiments with primary applications, and the obtained results indicate it could be potentially utilized as wearable detectors.

Flexible pressure sensors have been widely studied due to their potential applications in wearable electronics. However, the poor sensitivity and narrow working range seriously hinder their developments in practical applications. This article reports a flexible pressure sensor characterizing with modulus gradient and multilayered microstructure. The sensor has an ultrahigh sensitivity of 29.69 kPa ₋₁ due to the gradient structure formed by low modulus Ag/hydrogenated styrene-butadiene block copolymer (SEBS) electrode layer and high modulus graphene (GR)/carbon nanotubes (CNTs)/polycaprolactone (PCL) composite with surface microstructure. The sensor has an ultrawide measurement range of 0–500 kPa due to its multilayered structure. In addition, the sensor has good linearity (4.85%) and repeatability (2.18%), rapid response time (50 and 30 ms), low detection limit (30 Pa), and long-term durability (1000 cycles). Experimental results suggest that the sensor can be used for effective detection of mechanical vibrations, pulse, and human motions and can also be used for measuring spatial pressure distribution after being arrayed. These applications indicate its great potential in wearable medical devices and electronic skins.

The application of traditional materials with constant thermal conductivity in time-varying thermal environments poses great challenges due to their inability of adjusting thermal conductivity according to different requirements, for which reason materials with adjustable thermal conductivity have attracted much attention. However, certain limitations induced by those materials’ low softness or harsh adjustment conditions restrict them from being applied in heat dissipation and heat transfer scenarios. In this study, we report a biomimetic liquid metal–elastomer composited foam with adjustable thermal conductivity (B-LM-ECF). Inspired by the rationale of homeothermic animals regulating the thermal conductivity of their subcutaneous tissue, the prepared material adjusts its thermal conductivity via adjusting the volume proportion of liquid metal within it. The thermal conductivity of B-LM-ECF can be adjusted within the range of 0.11–8.4 W·m⁻¹K⁻¹. The adjustment factor η of B-LM-ECF is 76, which is defined as the ratio of the highest to the lowest thermal conductivity of the material. The material enabling reversible switching for itself from thermal insulation to heat dissipation. The prepared material exhibits 45 KPa of Young’s modulus with the maximum fracture tensile rate of 600%, facilitating better covering for thermal management objects. We selected a power lithium battery and a smartphone as specific thermal management objects to demonstrate its practical application in thermal management experiment.