Abstract
The demand for flexible and wearable electronic devices with excellent stretchability and sensitivity is increasing, especially for human motion detection. In this work, a simple, low-cost and convenient strategy has been employed to fabricate flexible strain sensor with a composite of carbon black and silver nanoparticles as sensing materials and thermoplastic polyurethane as matrix. The strain sensors thus prepared possesses high stretchability and good sensitivity (gauge factor of 21.12 at 100% tensile strain), excellent static (almost constant resistance variation under 50% strain for 600 s) and dynamic (100 cycles) stability. Compared with bare carbon black-based strain sensor, carbon black/silver nanoparticles composite-based strain sensor shows ~18 times improvement in sensitivity at 100% strain. In addition, we discuss the sensing mechanisms using the disconnection mechanism and tunneling effect which results in high sensitivity of the strain sensor. Due to its good strain-sensing performance, the developed strain sensor is promising in detecting various degrees of human motions such as finger bending, wrist rotation and elbow flexion.
Highlights
Among the sensors which have an electrical response to mechanical deformations, strain sensors have attracted considerable attention in many areas such as medical rehabilitation [1,2,3], sports performance monitoring [4,5], soft robots [6,7] and structural health monitoring [8,9]
The TEM image of carbon black (CB)/AgNPs composite was developed to demonstrate the assembling of CB and AgNPs
The obtained CB/AgNPs composite was used as zero-dimension composite filler for fabrication of strain sensor
Summary
Among the sensors which have an electrical response to mechanical deformations, strain sensors have attracted considerable attention in many areas such as medical rehabilitation [1,2,3], sports performance monitoring [4,5], soft robots [6,7] and structural health monitoring [8,9]. As for the parameters of stretchable electric materials, stretchability, sensitivity, stability, fabrication cost, and simplicity are key factors determining the performance of strain sensors [10]. Even though traditional strain sensors made of metal foils and semiconductors are well-developed, their poor stretchability and high cost impose limitations as practical applications [11,12]. There have been numerous efforts paid to enhance the performance of strain sensors with several alternative materials. Carbonaceous materials have been universally used in strain sensors because of their prominent electrical conductivity and mechanical properties [13]. The strain sensors fabricated by silver nanowires show relatively high sensitivity, which is suitable for human motion capturing
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