Biomimetic Honeycomb-like Ti3C2Tx MXene/Bacterial Cellulose Aerogel-Based Flexible Pressure Sensor for the Human–Computer Interface

Abstract

The pursuit of efficient and accurate human–computer interface design urgently requires high-performance sensors with pressure sensitivity, a wide detection range, and excellent cycling stability. Herein, a biomimetic honeycomb-like Ti₃C₂T_x MXene/bacterial cellulose (BC) aerogel with a negative Poisson’s ratio (ν = −0.14) synthesized from the bidirectional freeze-drying method is used as the active material for a flexible pressure sensor, which exhibits high sensitivity (20.14 kPa^–1), fast response time (100 ms), excellent mechanical durability (5000 cycles), and a low detection limit (responding to a grain of rice weighing about 0.022 g). Moreover, when assembled into the sandwich-structured bending sensor with the aerogel layer at just 0.8 mm in thickness, the aerogel-based device has a wide angular detection range (2.7–156.3°), high sensitivity (0.47 deg^–1), and good robustness, proving outstanding electromechanical performance. Significantly, a smart glove consisting of five bending sensors fixed to the proximal knuckles and a flexible circuit board as the signal processing unit was designed for the identification of the shape, demonstrating its promising applications in the field of human–computer interaction.