Borophene pressure sensing for electronic skin and human-machine interface

Wearable pressure sensors, which can rapidly respond to small pressure variations, play a crucial role in health monitoring system, human-machine interfaces, robotic technologies and artificial intelligence devices. Although conductive nanomaterials have been considered as sensing layers for the sensors, several drawbacks still exist: narrow detection range, high power consumption and poor integration. Here, we report that a high-performance pressure sensor can be fabricated using the novel two-dimensional semiconducting borophene as the active material. It is found that the sensor shows a high sensitivity (2.16 kPa-1), broad pressure ranges (0-120 kPa), low detection limit (down to 10 Pa), low power consumption (around 0.6 mu W) and high reproducibility (more than 1000 cycles). Furthermore, we demonstrate that the borophene sensor can be used as wearable electronic skin towards health monitoring, recognition of voice and human motion wireless detection, and applied in smart robots for human-machine interface.