Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Flexible and highly sensitive piezoelectric sensors with mesh design
By Zeng L et al.·2026·School of Materials Science and Engineering, China·View original on Europe PMC →
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Original publication title: Mesh-Architected Structurally Flexible Pb(Zr<sub>0.52</sub>Ti<sub>0.48</sub>)O<sub>3</sub> Framework Enables Highly Sensitive and Stretchable Piezoelectric Sensors.
Plain-English summary
This research focuses on creating a new type of piezoelectric sensor, which is a device that can detect pressure and movement. The sensor is designed to be both very sensitive and able to stretch a lot, making it useful for flexible electronics. It has a special structure that allows it to handle a lot of stretching—up to 220%—and still work well after many uses. This sensor can accurately sense small changes in surface texture and track human movements in real time, showing promise for use in robotics and health monitoring devices. Overall, the new sensor performs better than traditional ones in terms of sensitivity and flexibility.
Abstract
The booming demand for flexible electronics requires piezoelectric sensors that can simultaneously deliver high sensitivity and exceptional stretchability, which has become a significant challenge beyond the capabilities of conventional devices. Inspired by the hexagonal mesh structure, we adopted an architecture design to fabricate a continuous, structurally flexible ceramic skeleton, thereby developing a piezoelectric sensor integrating both high sensitivity and superior stretchability. The macroscopic 3D interconnected skeleton ensures efficient stress transfer for enhanced pressure sensitivity, while the hexagonal topology with hierarchical microfibers enables deformation-driven slippage under load to ensure robust stretchability. Consequently, the composite achieves remarkable stretchability (220% strain) and excellent mechanical stability (> 50 stretch-compression cycles, hysteresis ~ 8.13%). The fully flexible piezoelectric sensor maintains stable functionality even under 100% tensile strain and exhibits high sensitivity (39.57 mV kPa<sup>-1</sup>), collectively outperforming conventional piezoelectric sensors. Based on these unique advantages, we demonstrate the sensor's capability in fine surface roughness discrimination and real-time monitoring of human stretching movements, highlighting its great potential for applications in robotic dexterous manipulation and wearable health monitoring systems.
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Search related cases →Original publication on Europe PMC: https://europepmc.org/article/MED/41860690