Tailoring the polyurethane foam/rGO/BaTiO3 pressure sensor for human activities

The demand for the detection and monitoring of different human activities like motion, speech recognition, electronic skin, human-machine interface, and diagnosis is progressively requested recently. For this objective, a novel polyurethane foam/rGO/BaTiO3 pressure sensor was prepared in this report. Graphene oxide was synthesized via the modified Hummer method, then BaTiO3/rGO nanocomposite was obtained by the co-precipitation method. Finally dispersed through a polyurethane structure. The proposed sensor characteristics were evaluated by several characterization techniques. The phase composition was labeled using XRD viewing around 24 nm particle size, the surface morphology was investigated by SEM, also the HRTEM was used to investigate structure and crystallite size, while the successful incorporation of the BaTiO3 on the graphene surface is revealed. In addition to FTIR, Raman spectroscopy was also used, while the corresponding bands of the starting constituents are identified affirming the quality and validity of the synthesis. Pressure sensing for various stimulus as touch, wrist bending, and elbow bending is illustrated. The obtained results demonstrated the superb quality of the sensor fabrication, Moreover, a high sensitivity, and fast response and recovery behavior through repeated cycles without any noticeable hysteresis. The subjected sensor offers potentialities and efficiency for pressure-sensing appliances. The fabricated sensor exhibited a high sensitivity and response time of 2.64 kPa−1 and 560 ms respectively.