posted on 2024-02-02, 05:30authored byHuangshui Ma, Shiyu Pu, Hao Wu, Shiyu Jia, Jiamin Zhou, Hao Wang, Wangta Ma, Zegao Wang, Lei Yang, Qiang Sun
Skin is critical for shaping our interactions with the
environment.
The electronic skin (E-skin) has emerged as a promising interface
for medical devices to replicate the functions of damaged skin. However,
exploration of thermal perception, which is crucial for physiological
sensing, has been limited. In this work, a multifunctional E-skin
based on flexible thermoelectric Ag2Se films is proposed,
which utilizes the Seebeck effect to replicate the sensory functions
of natural skin. The E-skin can enable capabilities including temperature
perception, tactile perception, contactless perception, and material
recognition by analyzing the thermal conduction behaviors of various
materials. To further validate the capabilities of constructed E-skins,
a wearable device with multiple sensory channels was fabricated and
tested for gesture recognition. This work highlights the potential
for using flexible thermoelectric materials in advanced biomedical
applications including health monitoring and smart prosthetics.