Abstract
Flexible strain sensors have a wide range of applications in biomedical science, aerospace industry, portable devices, precise manufacturing, etc. However, the manufacturing processes of most flexible strain sensors previously reported have usually required high manufacturing costs and harsh experimental conditions. Besides, research interests are often focused on improving a single attribute parameter while ignoring others. This work aims to propose a simple method of manufacturing flexible graphene-based strain sensors with high sensitivity and fast response. Firstly, oxygen plasma treats the substrate to improve the interfacial interaction between graphene and the substrate, thereby improving device performance. The graphene solution is then sprayed using a soft PET mask to define a pattern for making the sensitive layer. This flexible strain sensor exhibits high sensitivity (gauge factor ~100 at 1% strain), fast response (response time: 400–700 μs), good stability (1000 cycles), and low overshoot (<5%) as well. Those processes used are compatible with a variety of complexly curved substrates and is expected to broaden the application of flexible strain sensors.
Highlights
Traditional strain sensors are mainly based on metal and semiconductor materials [1,2,3], using the “strain resistance” effect to convert the local strain of the measured object into a measurable change in resistance [4,5,6]
We have proposed a low-cost, convenient, common method for fabricating patterned graphene-based flexible strain sensor with high sensitivity and fast response
Extensively, without requirements of evaporation, photolithography, transfer, etc. Sensors obtained by this process show high performances
Summary
Traditional strain sensors are mainly based on metal and semiconductor materials [1,2,3], using the “strain resistance” effect to convert the local strain of the measured object into a measurable change in resistance [4,5,6]. With the miniaturization and distributed development of sensors, traditional sensing materials have been unable to meet the comprehensive requirements of high sensitivity coefficient, fast response, flexibility, and space adaptability. Compared with traditional strain sensors, flexible strain sensors have capabilities of portability, flexibility, transparency, continuous detection and good biocompatibility [7,8,9]. Graphene has unique structural characteristics, defect dependent electrical properties and multi-dimensional spatial adaptability. It has become one of the preferred materials for achieving highly-sensitive sensing and is expected to be widely used in flexible sensor devices to detect weak mechanical stimulation [14,15]. The adjacent graphene sheets are easy to achieve rapid
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