An ethanol-based Pickering emulsion that spontaneously forms conductive composites is used to sustainably manufacture compliant strain sensors. Compliant sensors based on composite materials are necessary components for geometrically complex systems such as wearable devices or soft robots. Composite materials consisting of polymer matrices and conductive fillers have facilitated the manufacture of compliant sensors due to their potential to be scaled in printing processes. Printing composite materials generally entails the use of solvents, such as toluene or cyclohexane, to dissolve the polymer resin and thin down the material to a printable viscosity. However, such solvents cause swelling and decomposition of most polymer substrates, limiting the utility of the composite materials. Moreover, many such conventional solvents are toxic or otherwise present health hazards. Here, sustainable manufacturing of sensors is reported, which uses an ethanol-based Pickering emulsion that spontaneously coagulates and forms a conductive composite. The Pickering emulsion consists of emulsified polymer precursors stabilized by conductive nanoparticles in an ethanol carrier. Upon evaporation of the ethanol, the precursors are released, which then coalesce amid nanoparticle networks and spontaneously polymerize in contact with the atmospheric moisture. We printed the self-coagulating conductive Pickering emulsion onto a variety of soft polymeric systems, including all-soft actuators and conventional textiles, to sensitize these systems. The resulting compliant sensors exhibit high strain sensitivity with negligible hysteresis, making them suitable for wearable and robotic applications.

中文翻译：

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使用自凝性导电Pickering乳液在软系统上可持续制造传感器

自发形成导电复合材料的基于乙醇的Pickering乳液用于可持续地制造顺应性应变传感器。基于复合材料的顺应传感器是几何形状复杂的系统（如可穿戴设备或软机器人）的必要组件。由聚合物基体和导电填料组成的复合材料，由于其在印刷过程中可以缩放的潜力，已经促进了顺应性传感器的制造。印刷复合材料通常需要使用溶剂（例如甲苯或环己烷）来溶解聚合物树脂，并使材料变稀至可印刷的粘度。然而，此类溶剂导致大多数聚合物基材膨胀和分解，从而限制了复合材料的实用性。此外，许多此类常规溶剂是有毒的，否则会危害健康。在此，报道了传感器的可持续制造，该传感器使用了乙醇基的Pickering乳液，该乳液自发凝结并形成导电复合材料。Pickering乳液由被乙醇载体中的导电纳米颗粒稳定的乳化聚合物前体组成。乙醇蒸发后，释放前体，然后将其聚结在纳米颗粒网络中，并与大气中的水分自发聚合。我们将自凝结的导电Pickering乳液印刷到各种软聚合物系统上，包括全软致动器和常规纺织品，以使这些系统敏感。所得的顺应性传感器显示出高应变敏感性，而磁滞可忽略不计，