Fully Printed, Highly Sensitive Multifunctional Artificial Electronic Whisker Arrays Integrated with Strain and Temperature Sensors
Abstract
Mammalian-mimicking functional electrical devices have tremendous potential in robotics, wearable and health monitoring systems, and human interfaces. The keys to achieve these devices are (1) highly sensitive sensors, (2) economically fabricated macroscale devices on flexible substrates, and (3) multifunctions beyond mammalian functions. Although highly sensitive artificial electronic devices have been reported, none have been fabricated using cost-effective macroscale printing methods and demonstrate multifunctionalities of artificial electronics. Herein we report fully printed high-sensitivity multifunctional artificial electronic whiskers (e-whisker) integrated with strain and temperature sensors using printable nanocomposite inks. Importantly, changing the composition ratio tunes the sensitivity of strain. Additionally, the printed temperature sensor array can be incorporated with the strain sensor array beyond mammalian whisker functionalities. The sensitivity for the strain sensor is impressively high (∼59%/Pa), which is the best sensitivity reported to date (>7× improvement). As the proof-of-concept for a truly printable multifunctional artificial e-whisker array, two- and three-dimensional space and temperature distribution mapping are demonstrated. This fully printable flexible sensor array should be applicable to a wide range of low-cost macroscale electrical applications.
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Wearable temperature and mechanical sensors have been integrated to realize wearable health and activity monitoring, human-interactive devices and multifunctional electronic skin.
“Wearable temperature and mechanical sensors (e.g., strain sensors, pressure sensors, and force sensors) have been integrated to realize wearable health and activity monitoring, human-interactive devices and multifunctional electronic skin.[47,65,80,172,196,197]”
From Nanomaterial-Enabled Wearable Sensors for Healthcare (2018) · cites this paper as [80]
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Harada, S., Honda, W., Arie, T., Akita, S., & Takei, K.
- Affiliations
- Osaka Prefecture University (JP)
- Corresponding author
- Takei, Kuniharu
- Venue
- ACS Nano
- Publisher
- American Chemical Society (ACS)
- Published
- 2014-03-04
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 3921-3927
- ISSN
- 1936-0851 (ISSN-L)
- 1936-086X
- OpenAlex
- W2322535512
- Cited by
- 322
- References
- 22
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 25 · 2022: 31 · 2021: 29 · 2020: 29 · 2019: 43 · 2018: 36 · 2017: 38 · 2016: 26 · 2015: 19 · 2014: 8
- FWCI
- 16.10
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- ACS Nano (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (25889048)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Nanomaterials and Printing Technologies
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Advanced Sensor and Energy Harvesting Materials
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Nanofabrication and Lithography Techniques
- Keywords
- printed electronics, strain sensors, temperature sensors, multifunctional sensors, nanocomposite inks, flexible substrates, strain sensitivity, temperature mapping
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Printing, Silver, Stress, Mechanical, Temperature, Vibrissae, Biomimetics, Nanotubes, Carbon, Metal Nanoparticles, Electrical Equipment and Supplies
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