Smart skin of underwater vehicle with dual functions of sound detection and absorption

The rapid development of underwater vehicles has posed the pressing and urgent requirement for smart underwater skin. Developing the multi-function underwater skin for sound detection and absorption is of significance for environment investigation and stable operation of underwater vehicles. Herein, a novel underwater acoustic skin with dual functions of sensitive sound detection and effective sound absorption under high hydrostatic pressure was reported. With addition of piezoelectric multiple yolk-shell particles and carbon nanotube network, the smart skin exhibited excellent sound absorption performance and enhanced mechanical property, which retained a high sound coefficient under pressure of 3 MPa compared to the resin skin. The enhanced skin with piezoelectric particles also exhibited sensitive sound detection capability with admirable directivity. The results proved the broad application prospect of the acoustic skin based on piezoelectric multiple yolk-shell particles and conductive network in the underwater extreme environment.