Trends on Carbon Nanotube-Based Flexible and Wearable Sensors via Electrochemical and Mechanical Stimuli: A Review

Abstract

Flexible and wearable sensors increasingly draw attention owing to their advantages of providing lightweight, portable, wearable, or implantable capabilities. Along with the development of flexible materials toward wearable devices, flexible sensors operating via electrochemical and mechanical stimuli demonstrate promise to fulfill potential healthcare and robotics applications, including artificial muscles, health monitoring, human motion detection, soft robotic skin, and human–machine interfaces. This review focuses on carbon nanotube (CNT)-based flexible sensors to detect diverse chemical species and mechanical forces. Often, combined with polymers to imbue flexibility, CNT-based flexible sensors enable specific and stable detections of mechanical deformations and electrochemical analytes while withstanding various mechanical loads, including stretching, bending, and twisting.