Protein-Based Flexible Conductive Aerogels for Piezoresistive\nPressure Sensors

Abstract

Gelatin is an excellent\ngelling agent and is widely employed for\nhydrogel formation. Because of the poor mechanical properties of gelatin\nwhen dry, gelatin-aerogels are comparatively rare. Herein we demonstrate\nthat protein nanofibrils can be employed to improve the mechanical\nproperties of gelatin aerogels, and the materials can moreover be\nfunctionalized with a an electrically conductive polyelectrolyte resulting\nin formation of an elastic electrically conductive aerogel that can\nbe employed as a piezoresistive pressure sensor. The aerogel sensor\nshows a good linear relationship in a wide pressure range (1.8–300\nkPa) with a sensitivity of 1.8 kPa^–1. This work\npresents a convenient way to produce electrically conductive elastic\naerogels from low-cost protein precursors.