Hierarchical micro-engineering of paper for high-performance pressure sensing and triboelectric nanogeneration

Abstract

The practical application of paper-based pressure sensors is often hindered by their narrow detection range that is rooted in the simple and homogeneous contacts within the fibrous network. To address that, we report a hierarchical micro-engineering strategy that constructs a multi-dimensional conductive architecture on standard filter paper, which is achieved through dip-coating with graphene oxide (GO) followed by in situ polymerization of polypyrrole (PPy), creating a synergistic structure where one-dimensional fibers are decorated with zero-dimensional PPy spheres and two-dimensional reduced GO sheets. This ingenious architecture establishes multi-level electron transport pathways, enabling the sensor to achieve a broad detection range (0–204.4 kPa), a high sensitivity of 0.552 kPa⁻¹, and a rapid response time of 100 ms. Furthermore, the hierarchical structured paper can be utilized for energy harvesting, with an output voltage of up to 112 V and a maximum power density of 0.8 W m⁻². Owing to these attributes, our work paves the way for advanced applications in smart human–computer interaction, spatial pressure mapping, and self-powered sensing systems.