Sea urchin-like microstructure pressure sensors with an ultra-broad range and high sensitivity

Sensitivity and pressure range are two significant parameters of pressure sensors. Existing pressure sensors have difficulty achieving both high sensitivity and a wide pressure range. Therefore, we propose a new pressure sensor with a ternary nanocomposite Fe 2 O 3 /C@SnO 2 . The sea urchin-like Fe 2 O 3 structure promotes signal transduction and protects Fe 2 O 3 needles from mechanical breaking, while the acetylene carbon black improves the conductivity of Fe 2 O 3 . Moreover, one part of the SnO 2 nanoparticles adheres to the surfaces of Fe 2 O 3 needles and forms Fe 2 O 3 /SnO 2 heterostructures, while its other part disperses into the carbon layer to form SnO 2 @C structure. Collectively, the synergistic effects of the three structures (Fe 2 O 3 /C, Fe 2 O 3 /SnO 2 and SnO 2 @C) improves on the limited pressure response range of a single structure. The experimental results demonstrate that the Fe 2 O 3 /C@SnO 2 pressure sensor exhibits high sensitivity (680 kPa −1 ), fast response (10 ms), broad range (up to 150 kPa), and good reproducibility (over 3500 cycles under a pressure of 110 kPa), implying that the new pressure sensor has wide application prospects especially in wearable electronic devices and health monitoring.