Enhanced Stretchable and Sensitive Strain Sensor via Controlled Strain Distribution.

Zhicheng Zhang,Huamin Chen,Longfeng Lv,Chuanchuan Li,Jiushuang Zhang,Yun Xu,Yuliang Li,Jun Wang,Pengjun Xu,Shaochun Zhang

doi:10.3390/nano10020218

Abstract

Stretchable and wearable opto-electronics have attracted worldwide attention due to their broad prospects in health monitoring and epidermal applications. Resistive strain sensors, as one of the most typical and important device, have been the subject of great improvements in sensitivity and stretchability. Nevertheless, it is hard to take both sensitivity and stretchability into consideration for practical applications. Herein, we demonstrated a simple strategy to construct a highly sensitive and stretchable graphene-based strain sensor. According to the strain distribution in the simulation result, highly sensitive planar graphene and highly stretchable crumpled graphene (CG) were rationally connected to effectively modulate the sensitivity and stretchability of the device. For the stretching mode, the device showed a gauge factor (GF) of 20.1 with 105% tensile strain. The sensitivity of the device was relatively high in this large working range, and the device could endure a maximum tensile strain of 135% with a GF of 337.8. In addition, in the bending mode, the device could work in outward and inward modes. This work introduced a novel and simple method with which to effectively monitor sensitivity and stretchability at the same time. More importantly, the method could be applied to other material categories to further improve the performance.

Highlights

Stretchable and wearable electronics have attracted tremendous interest due to their broad prospects in health monitoring and epidermal applications
As one of the most important and typical devices, strain sensors have been the subject of remarkable progress in terms of sensing mechanisms including strain–resistance effect [11,12,13,14,15,16,17], strain–capacitance effect [18,19,20,21,22,23], thermoelectric effect [24,25], piezoelectric effect [26,27,28,29,30], triboelectric effect [31,32,33,34,35], and field effect [36,37,38]
Microstructures such as crumple structures, zigzag structures, U-shape structures, and mesh layout are usually introduced into the conductor surface to form highly stretchable strain sensors [58,59]

Summary

Introduction

Stretchable and wearable electronics have attracted tremendous interest due to their broad prospects in health monitoring and epidermal applications Various stretchable devices such as displays [1,2], integrated circuits [3,4], energy conversion and storage units [5,6,7,8], and sensing systems [9,10] have been developed to improve practicality. Microstructures such as crumple structures, zigzag structures, U-shape structures, and mesh layout are usually introduced into the conductor surface to form highly stretchable strain sensors [58,59]. We demonstrated a straightforward method by which to fabricate a highly sensitive and stretchable graphene-based strain sensor. This work introduced a novel and simple strategy by which to effectively monitor sensitivity and stretchability at the same time. The strategy could be applied to other material categories

Fabrication of the Highly Stretchable and Sensitive Strain Sensor

Findings

Characterization of the Device