Tactile microsensor elements prepared from arrayed superelastic carbon microcoils

Superelastic carbon microcoils (SCMCs) with high elasticity and coiling chirality were prepared by the Ni-catalyzed pyrolysis of acetylene, and novel tactile microsensor elements using the SCMCs as the sensor material were prepared. The sensor elements with a very small size of $80\times 80\times 80\mu {\mathrm{m}}^3$ showed a very high sensitivity of $0.3\mathrm{mgf}$ $\left(1\mathrm{Pa}\right)$ . It was found that the SCMC arraying in the matrix and the placement method on the electrodes dramatically affected the sensing properties.