A Highly Sensitive Piezoresistive Electronic Skin: Coulomb Blockade-Favored Dynamic Conduction Paths in Micellar Brush-Templated Metal Nanoarrays

The creation of tailored micro-nanostructures frequently brings intriguing features to flexible electronic skins (E-skins). However, the construction of nanoscale architectures on soft substrates under mild conditions remains a critical challenge. Herein, we report a facile micellar brush-templated strategy for the precise fabrication of conductive metal nanoarrays on diverse flexible substrates. Erect micelle/Pt-nanoarrays with precisely tunable heights are prepared through surface-initiated living growth of cylindrical micellar brushes followed by the dense decoration of Pt nanoparticles at an ambient temperature. The stacking of nanoparticles imparts distinctive electron transport characteristics, facilitating the establishment of dynamic conductive pathways during interlocking and resulting in substantial enhancement of pressure sensitivity. Thus, the micelle/Pt-nanoarray-based E-skin reveals remarkably high sensitivity over a wide pressure range, enabling comprehensive detection capabilities encompassing foot pressure, finger bending, wrist pulse, and weak gas flow. Moreover, these conductive metal nanoarrays can be readily fabricated on soft substrates with a tortuous surface, favoring the formation of hierarchically structured E-skin with linear response across a broad scale.