An aircell hydrogel for ultra-sensitive human-machine interaction

Porous hydrogel sensors have attracted significant attention in fields such as smart wearables and medical monitoring due to their high sensitivity. However, existing fabrication methods typically degrade the surface smoothness of hydrogels when introducing porous structures and face significant challenges in removing fillers. To address these challenges, we introduce a novel one-step, thermosensitive spray-coating technique for the preparation of AirCell Hydrogel (ACH). This method leverages the rapid cooling of a thermoresponsive gelatin methacryloyl solution through atomization, enabling rapid cross-linking within seconds and air bubbles encapsulate in situ. Additionally, the transient flow of the pre-gel facilitates the repair of voids formed by ruptured surface bubbles, leading to the creation of ACH with uniformly distributed inner air bubbles and smooth outer surface. The mold-free fabrication method is independent of substrate surface properties, enabling the creation of a bubble hydrogel film with a thickness as thin as 163 μm. Furthermore, the dual-crosslinked network endows ACH with excellent anti-swelling properties, and the physical crosslinking between gelatin molecules allows ACH to self-heal. In deformation sensing, ACH exhibits excellent sensitivity, successfully tracking even minor external forces, and effectively completing tasks such as facial expression recognition, pitch differentiation, and motion detection. When the ACH is integrated into a sensing glove, significant potential for applications in human-machine interaction and tactile sensing is demonstrated. Ultimately, the ACH sensors are also applied to motion mapping and machine tactile feedback, indicating their promising potentials in human-machine interaction.