Wearable strain sensors enabled by integrating one-dimensional polydopamine-enhanced graphene/polyurethane sensing fibers into textile structures

Abstract

A new yarn sensor-weaving integration approach was developed for fabricating textile sensor through integrating the strain-sensing yarn element into fabric structure, not only attaining the sensing function but also maintaining the exceptional property and appearance of the fabric. The effects of fabric structure and parameters were investigated; on that basis, a sateen and modified sateen structure with the optimized structural parameters were identified for fabricating sensing textiles with desired sensing performance. Based on the rational design of materials and fabric structure, the resultant textile strain sensor exhibits good sensitivity, excellent linearity, low hysteresis and outstanding repeatability (repeatability error) of 14.1, 0.976, 10.6% and 3.25% as well as 22.3, 0.961, 11.4% and 3.11% for sateen and modified sateen sensors, respectively. Especially, the sensors show superior durability under 20000 stretch-release cycles. Moreover, the sensing mechanism of such textile sensor was revealed through the examination and analysis of deformation of the strain-sensing yarn within fabric structure with the extension of fabric.