Flexible pressure sensors have become pivotal in the advancement of wearable electronics and underwater monitoring, particularly when augmented by artificial intelligence. Nevertheless, the development of a unified sensing platform capable of seamless operation in both health monitoring and underwater communication remains a significant challenge. To address this issue, a highly sensitive flexible iontronic pressure sensor featuring a micro-pyramidal architecture was developed. The device is fabricated using molding involving a bespoke composite ink comprising carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and ionic liquid as the sensing layer. This layer is then sandwiched between screen-printed silver electrodes. The sensor demonstrated exceptional performance metrics, including high sensitivity (370 kPa−1), rapid response and recovery times (20 ms), and outstanding reliability (about 20000 cycles). In the domain of wearable health monitoring, the sensor demonstrated its capacity to discern faint human pulse signals, facilitating the acquisition of high-fidelity pulse waveforms. Concurrently, within the domain of underwater intelligent communication, the sensor was used to detect Morse code signals, which were then accurately classified by a deep learning algorithm. This work not only validates the sensor’s high performance but also demonstrates its dual functionality, seamlessly connecting human healthcare with intelligent underwater interaction and significantly broadening the scope of flexible sensing applications.
Xiang et al. (Mon,) studied this question.