Skin-Inspired Ultra-Linear Flexible Iontronic Pressure Sensors for Wearable Musculoskeletal Monitoring.

Abstract

The growing prevalence of exercise-induced tibial stress fractures demands wearable sensors capable of monitoring dynamic musculoskeletal loads with medical-grade precision. While flexible pressure-sensing insoles show clinical potential, their development has been hindered by the intrinsic trade-off between high sensitivity and full-range linearity (R² > 0.99 up to 1 MPa) in conventional designs. Inspired by the tactile sensing mechanism of human skin, where dermal stratification enables wide-range pressure adaptation and ion-channel-regulated signaling maintains linear electrical responses, we developed a dual-mechanism flexible iontronic pressure sensor (FIPS). This innovative design synergistically combines two bioinspired components: interdigitated fabric microstructures enabling pressure-proportional contact area expansion (∝ P^1/3) and iontronic film facilitating self-adaptive ion concentration modulation (∝ P^2/3), which together generate a linear capacitance-pressure response (C ∝ P). The FIPS achieves breakthrough performance: 242 kPa^-1 sensitivity with 0.997 linearity across 0-1 MPa, yielding a record linear sensing factor (LSF = 242,000). The design is validated across various substrates and ionic materials, demonstrating its versatility. Finally, the FIPS-driven design enables a smart insole demonstrating 1.8% error in tibial load assessment during gait analysis, outperforming nonlinear counterparts (6.5% error) in early fracture-risk prediction. The biomimetic design framework establishes a universal approach for developing high-performance linear sensors, establishing generalized principles for medical-grade wearable devices.