Gradient-porous ionic polymer composites for deep-sea ultralow-frequency hydrophones

IF 4.1 3区工程技术 Q2 ENGINEERING, ELECTRICAL & ELECTRONIC

Sensors and Actuators A-physical Pub Date : 2025-04-09 DOI:10.1016/j.sna.2025.116555

Zicai Zhu , Zirui Cai , Yuanji Yao , Zhen-Hua Tang

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Conventional hydrophones suffer from sophisticated pressure-bearing structure, large acoustic impedance mismatch with water, as well as powerless ultralow-frequency acoustic perception, rendering their practical applications in the field of underwater detection. Inspired by the ion permeation and mechanotransduction mechanisms in underwater organisms, pressure induced charge carrier migration in ionic polymer composite is used to design uncovered hydrophones which are suitable for deep-sea environment, and gradient-porous structure design in the ionic polymer composite makes the stress wave driving charge carriers highly efficient, and ensures the excellent output charge response to hydroacoustic signals. Full-ocean-depth environment simulation testing is conducted and demonstrate that the bare ionic polymer composite membrane could be used in deep-sea high-pressure environment without using any rigid protection out-shells. The finally developed uncovered ionic polymer hydrophone prototype showcases exceptional sound pressure sensitivity grade (-198.2 ± 3 dB) within an ultralow-frequency range (20–200 Hz), which is significantly better than that of the earlier research and commercial hydrophones (-205 dB). This study demonstrates that the low-frequency hydroacoustic detection capability of ionic polymer composites in high-pressure water environments, which can transmit low-frequency sounds into sensitive charge responses, enabling the development of systems for detecting and monitoring underwater vehicles in deep-sea environments.

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来源期刊

Sensors and Actuators A-physical 工程技术-工程：电子与电气

CiteScore

8.10

自引率

6.50%

发文量

630

审稿时长

49 days

期刊介绍： Sensors and Actuators A: Physical brings together multidisciplinary interests in one journal entirely devoted to disseminating information on all aspects of research and development of solid-state devices for transducing physical signals. Sensors and Actuators A: Physical regularly publishes original papers, letters to the Editors and from time to time invited review articles within the following device areas: • Fundamentals and Physics, such as: classification of effects, physical effects, measurement theory, modelling of sensors, measurement standards, measurement errors, units and constants, time and frequency measurement. Modeling papers should bring new modeling techniques to the field and be supported by experimental results. • Materials and their Processing, such as: piezoelectric materials, polymers, metal oxides, III-V and II-VI semiconductors, thick and thin films, optical glass fibres, amorphous, polycrystalline and monocrystalline silicon. • Optoelectronic sensors, such as: photovoltaic diodes, photoconductors, photodiodes, phototransistors, positron-sensitive photodetectors, optoisolators, photodiode arrays, charge-coupled devices, light-emitting diodes, injection lasers and liquid-crystal displays. • Mechanical sensors, such as: metallic, thin-film and semiconductor strain gauges, diffused silicon pressure sensors, silicon accelerometers, solid-state displacement transducers, piezo junction devices, piezoelectric field-effect transducers (PiFETs), tunnel-diode strain sensors, surface acoustic wave devices, silicon micromechanical switches, solid-state flow meters and electronic flow controllers. Etc...