Flexible Piezoelectric Nanofibers/Polydimethylsiloxane‐Based Pressure Sensor for Self‐Powered Human Motion Monitoring

Abstract

Self‐powered wearable devices have attracted significantly increased attention in human motion monitoring. These flexible physical sensors conformally attach to the surface of the skin to provide new applications in human‐activity monitoring. Herein, a highly flexible and self‐powered piezoelectric pressure sensor for real‐time human motion detecting using a piezoelectric thin film with high filling ratio of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) nanofibers (NFs) in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is reported. Due to the large dielectric constant of PZT and elastic properties of PDMS, the sensor performs in a wide linear region (1.25–250 kPa) with great linearity (pressure–voltage 0.9909) and good reproducibility over 2000 cycles. Using the sensor, various human body motions are detected, including joint bending, subtle/large wrist deformations, wrist and some common sporting movements. In addition, a sensor array is successfully developed to realize motion tracking, showing strong potential for application in personal recognition.