Abstract
Accurate monitoring biomechanical signals is critical for physiological assessment and clinical interventions, but remains challenging due to their dynamic and imperceptible characteristics. Here, inspired by the spiderweb’s ability to perceive weak mechanical perturbations, we present a flextensional transduction strategy that allows piezoelectric devices to detect slight mechanical stimulus with ultrahigh sensitivity. Finite-element simulations and experimental validations demonstrate that flextensional strain amplification and dipole reorientation in amorphous PVDF domains synergistically enable a record output voltage of 161.5 V and a power density of 153.4 μW·cm−² under sub-Newton-level mechanical stimuli. The device allows for real-time contact force monitoring during endovascular aneurysm interventions and high-fidelity pulse waveforms acquisition for noninvasive blood pressure estimation. This bioinspired strategy establishes a universal route for transducing imperceptible biomechanical stimuli into measurable electrical signals for ultrasensitive biomedical monitoring.
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All data supporting this study are available from the article and its Supplementary Information. Other relevant data are available from the corresponding authors upon request.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (22434007, 22104021, 52303075, 22374032, 22404102), the Taishan Young Scholar Program of Shandong Province (No. tsqnz20231235), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2024M751883), Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (No. ZR2024QB338, ZR2023QB227), Higher Education Institutions Youth Innovation Team Plan of Shandong Province (2024KJH046), Postdoctoral Innovation Project of Shandong Province (SDCX-ZG-202400279), Department of Science and Technology of Guangdong Province (2022A1515110014).
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S.Z., Z.S. and L.N. conceived and designed the experiments. S.L. and M.C. prepared materials, performed the experiments, and analyzed experimental data. W.L., H.K. and Y.B. analyzed the data and interpreted the results. Z.S. wrote the manuscript. Z.S. and L.N. supervised all the aspects of this work and provided financial support. All authors discussed the results and contributed to the paper.
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Liu, S., Chen, M., Song, Z. et al. Spiderweb-inspired flextensional transduction enables giant piezoelectric response for monitoring imperceptible biomechanical signals. npj Flex Electron (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41528-026-00546-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41528-026-00546-4
