Multifunctional high-performance pressure/proximity/temperature sensors enabled by hybrid resistive-supercapacitive response

The issue of sensitivity attenuation in high-pressure region has been a persistent concern for pressure-sensitive electronic skins. In order to tackle such trade-off between sensitivity and linear range, herein, a hybrid piezoresistive-supercapacitive (HRSC) strategy is proposed via introducing a piezoresistive porous aerogel layer between the charge collecting electrodes and iontronic films of the pressure sensors. Surprisingly, the HRSC-induced impedance regulation and supercapacitive behavior contribute to significant mitigation in sensitivity attenuation, achieving high sensitivity across wide linear range (44.58 kPa⁻¹ from 0 to 3 kPa and 23.6 kPa⁻¹ from 3 to 12 kPa). The HRSC pressure sensor exhibits a low detection limit of 1 Pa, fast responsiveness (~ 130 ms), and excellent cycling stability, allowing to detect tiny pressure of air flow, finger bending, and human respiration. Meanwhile, the HRSC sensor exhibits exceptional perception capabilities for proximity and temperature, broadening its application scenarios in prosthetic perception and electronic skin. The proposed HRSC strategy may boost the ongoing research on structural design of high-performance and multimodal electronic sensors.