Abstract
In the last decade, significant developments of flexible and stretchable force sensors have been witnessed in order to satisfy the demand of several applications in robotic, prosthetics, wearables and structural health monitoring bringing decisive advantages due to their manifold customizability, easy integration and outstanding performance in terms of sensor properties and low-cost realization. In this paper, we review current advances in this field with a special focus on polymer/carbon nanotubes (CNTs) based sensors. Based on the electrical properties of polymer/CNTs nanocomposite, we explain underlying principles for pressure and strain sensors. We highlight the influence of the manufacturing processes on the achieved sensing properties and the manifold possibilities to realize sensors using different shapes, dimensions and measurement procedures. After an intensive review of the realized sensor performances in terms of sensitivity, stretchability, stability and durability, we describe perspectives and provide novel trends for future developments in this intriguing field.
Highlights
Nowadays, there is a growing demand for flexible and stretchable strain and pressure sensors in several applications, such as structural health monitoring [1], human motion detection [2,3], robotic touch applications [4], skin-mountable sensors [5,6], and several further applications [6,7] (Figure 1)
Materials based on polymer nanocomposites containing smart carbon nanomaterials, such as graphene [16], carbon nanotubes (CNTs) [17,18,19,20] gained tremendous attractivity in the realization of pressure and strain sensors due to their superior sensitivity, their outstanding mechanical and electrical properties, in addition to the possibility of tunability of the material properties of the nanocomposite, which can be realized in respect to the desired application requirements
Realization of wearable pressure and strain sensors based on polymer/CNTs with outstanding performance including superior stretchability, good flexibility, a wide sensing range, and sensitivity requires the consideration of several aspects such as the used polymer, CNTs size and orientation, adopted processing approach and sensor structure
Summary
There is a growing demand for flexible and stretchable strain and pressure sensors in several applications, such as structural health monitoring [1], human motion detection [2,3], robotic touch applications [4], skin-mountable sensors [5,6], and several further applications [6,7] (Figure 1). Numerous works reported on new approaches for fabrication of flexible, stretchable and sensitive force sensors. They are mainly based on the use of sensitive materials coated on a flexible substrate [10] or a stretchable sensitive material [11].
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