Biomimetic strain sensors based on patterned polydimethylsiloxane and Ir nanoparticles decorated multi-walled carbon nanotubes

Abstract

In this work, we propose a new design of flexible strain sensors based on biomimetic patterned-polydimethylsiloxane (P-PDMS) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) decorated with Ir nanoparticles (NPs) deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD). The biomimetic flexible strain sensors of Ir NPs@MWCNTs on patterned PDMS show superior sensitivity (34.96), larger sensing range (0–30%), better stability (＞10,000 stretch and release cycles), and fairly faster response time (150 ms) under optimal 200 ALD Ir cycles. This is attributed to the synergic effect of utilizing patterned PDMS films copied from duck webs as substrates and Ir@CNTs as sensing materials. Furthermore, the flexible strain sensors can detect not only stretch but also bend stress rapidly and accurately. Above all, a simple, green, and low cost method has been developed to fabricate the flexible biomimetic strain sensors with patterned PDMS and Ir NPs@MWCNTs, exhibit promising prospects in human motion detection, wearable electronics, human-machine interfaces, etc.