An adhesive, highly stretchable and low-hysteresis alginate-based conductive hydrogel strain sensing system for motion capture

Abstract

A strain sensor stands as an indispensable tool for capturing intricate motions in various applications, ranging from human motion monitoring to electronic skin and soft robotics. However, existing strain sensors still face difficulties in simultaneously achieving superior sensing performance sufficing for practical applications like high stretchability and low hysteresis, as well as seamless device fabrication like desirable interfacial adhesion and system-level integration. Herein, we develop a highly stretchable and low-hysteresis strain sensor with adhesive poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS)/polyacrylamide (PAAm)‑sodium alginate (SA) composite hydrogel, allowing the successful construction of a wireless motion capture sensing system that can provide precise data collection within a large deformation range. The resultant composite hydrogel displays favorable interfacial adhesion and robust mechanical stability, and the fabricated strain sensor demonstrates a wide working strain range (up to 500 %) with high sensitivity (gauge factor = 11) and ultra-low hysteresis (1.52 %), outperforming previous PEDOT-based hydrogel strain sensors. Enabled by the intriguing material properties and high sensing performance, we further demonstrate the fabrication and integration of a wireless motion capture sensing system for diverse applications like human motion monitoring, gesture recognition, and interactive communication.