Ultra-sensitive and durable strain sensor with sandwich structure and excellent anti-interference ability for wearable electronic skins

Abstract

Smart and wearable strain sensors have sparked enormous research interests in various applications of flexible electronic devices. For this topic, it remains a huge challenge to acquire wide sensing range, high sensitivity, superior durability and fast response synergistically. Herein, we present an ultra-sensitive and durable strain sensor with sandwich structure to address the issues, which is mainly composed of the composite of carbon black (CB)/aligned thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) fibrous mat and the Ecoflex. The CB/TPU/Ecoflex strain sensor (CTESS) is prepared via decorating CB nanoparticles onto the aligned electrospun TPU fibrous mats by ultrasonication, then encapsulated with Ecoflex to develop a sandwich structure. This structure provides effective protection for the conductive CB/TPU fibrous network, endowing the strain sensor with excellent sensing performances, including low detection limit (0.5% strain), wide response range (up to 225% strain), ultrahigh sensitivity (maximum gauge factor of 3186.4 at strain of 225%), fast response time (70 ms) and favorable repeatability even after 5000 stretching/releasing cycles. CTESS also shows an excellent anti-interference capability to external humidity and temperature. The CTESS is then assembled as artificial electronic skins to monitor various human motions, exhibiting great application prospects in next-generation wearable electronics.