Humidity-resistant, breathable, waterproof, and bionic triboelectric electronic skins for self-powered haptic sensing and human motion recognition

Researchers have been striving for a long time to create an electronic skin (E-skin) that can rival or surpass human skin in functionality. Herein, inspired by human skin, we developed a bionic triboelectric E-skin (BTE-skin) via a cost-effective method with superior humidity-resistance, breathability and waterproofness. Benefiting from introducing HKUST-1 into silicone rubber as the triboelectric layer significantly enhances the humidity resistance of the triboelectric E-skin, and the output is increased by a factor of 2.15 at 90 % relative humidity. The construction of a fully enclosed electrode structure and a three-dimensional microporous array structure promises BTE-skin excellent breathability (water vapor transmission of 500 g/m2/d and air permeability of 293 mm/s) and waterproofness. In addition, the BTE-skin exhibits a wide sensing range (up to 100 kPa), ultra-high pressure response sensitivity in the low-pressure region (504.60nA/kPa), fast response time (42 ms), and excellent cycling stability over 10,000 cycles. Furthermore, based on the BTE-skin, a self-powered smart home control system and a visual leg motion recognition system have been successfully developed. This work proposes a new strategy for tracking electronic human skin and manifests great potential in the intelligent wearable sensing field, which can help human life move toward a more convenient and intelligent future.