In simple terms, what is the difference between pressure sensors and piezoelectric sensors? I did some google search online and could not come to a good conclusion. Say you make a 'sensor' in the lab of a conductive material like graphite or something carbon based. When you add pressure on the active part (the graphite/crabon) and it allows electric current to flow through it, would this be a pressure sensor or a piezoelectric sensor?
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In simple terms, what is the difference between pressure sensors and piezoelectric sensors?
"Piezoelectric" refers to a specific type of material property that can be used in a sensor. When you think of "piezo-electric" you can rhymingly think "squeeze-o-electric," since the materials with this property can generate a voltage when they are squeezed. This "squeeze" (or "strain") can be applied by a force/"stress" (or, effectively equivalently for a small fixed area, a pressure.)
So, a pressure sensor could be a piezoelectric pressure sensor, but there can be other types of pressure sensors. Pretty much anything that senses a force and does so with respect to a roughly fixed area could be considered a pressure sensor.
An an example of a pressure sensor that is not a piezoelectric sensor, you can think of a simple analog barometer.
Say you make a 'sensor' in the lab of a conductive material like graphite or something carbon based. When you add pressure on the active part (the graphite/crabon) and it allows electric current to flow through it, would this be a pressure sensor or a piezoelectric sensor?
What you have created would be characterized as a piezoelectric pressure sensor if the reason the current flows is due to a piezoelectric effect of the material used in the sensor. Otherwise, for example, if the pressure is simply causing a macroscopic switch to connect, we would not characterize it as a piezoelectric pressure sensor.
