Piezoresistive Strain Sensors Research Articles

Electrospun thermoplastic polyurethane membrane decorated with carbon nanotubes: A platform of flexible strain sensors for human motion monitoring

A piezoresistive flexible strain sensor was developed using thermoplastic polyurethane elastomers (TPU) as the matrix and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as conductive fillers. Sensitivity, strain range, and tensile cycling stability were concurrently considered during its design. Electrospun TPU fiber membranes were prepared via electrospinning in this experiment, with controllable fiber diameter achieved by adjusting the rotational speed of the electrospinning receiving drum. CNTs were incorporated into a flexible polymer substrate through suction filtration to create the strain sensor. The support structure of the electrospun film served as a carrier for uniformly adhering conductive particles. Well-dispersed conductive CNTs could more easily achieve uniform loading through the pore size of the electrospun fiber film, thereby forming a conductive layer. This study initially determined the influence of TPU content in the spinning solution on the morphology of the electrospun membrane. Subsequently, the effects of CNT content and electrospinning receiving drum rotational speed on the microstructure of TPU electrospun membranes were investigated, along with their impact on the microstructure, mechanical properties, and sensing performance of CNTs/TPU (CT) flexible strain sensors. The results indicate that the electrospun fiber membrane prepared under the conditions of TPU mass fraction of 20 wt% and rotational speed of 100 r/min has a larger average fiber diameter and a more stable scaffold structure. The CNTs/TPU (CT) sensor, prepared by filtering 10 mL of CNTs with a concentration of 2 mg/mL, exhibited the best mechanical properties, with a tensile strength and elongation at break of 6.22 MPa and 575 %, respectively. Additionally, it demonstrated high sensitivity (GF = 420.17 at 200 % strain) and excellent durability stability (300 cycle tests), enabling quick and accurate responses to movements of various parts of the human body, thereby meeting the basic usage requirements of flexible strain sensors.

Substrate-Free Transfer of Silicon- and Metallic-Based Strain Sensors on Textile and in Composite Material for Structural Health Monitoring.

New technologies to integrate electronics and sensors on or into objects can support the growth of embedded electronics. The method proposed in this paper has the huge advantage of being substrate-free and applicable to a wide range of target materials such as fiber-based composites, widely used in manufacturing, and for which monitoring applications such as fatigue, cracks, and deformation detection are crucial. Here, sensors are first fabricated on a donor substrate using standard microelectronic processes and then transferred to the host material by direct transfer printing. Results show the viability of composites instrumented by strain gauges. Indeed, dynamic and static measurements highlight that the deformations can be detected with high sensitivity both on the surface and at various points in the depth of the composite material. Thanks to this technology, for the first time, a substrate-free piezoresistive n-doped silicon strain sensor is transferred into a composite material and characterized as a function of strain applied on it. It is shown that the transfer process does not alter the electrical behavior of the sensors that are five times more sensitive than extensively used metallic ones. An application designed for monitoring the deformation of a rudder foil with a classic NACA profile in real time is presented.

Dual-Use Strain Sensors for Acoustic Emission and Quasi-Static Bending Measurements.

In this paper, a MEMS piezoresistive ultrathin silicon membrane-based strain sensor is presented. The sensor's ability to capture an acoustic emission signal is demonstrated using a Hsu-Nielsen source, and shows comparable frequency content to a commercial piezoceramic ultrasonic transducer. To the authors' knowledge, this makes the developed sensor the first known piezoresistive strain sensor which is capable of recording low-energy acoustic emissions. The improvements to the nondestructive evaluation and structural health monitoring arise from the sensor's low minimum detectable strain and wide-frequency bandwidth, which are generated from the improved fabrication process that permits crystalline semiconductor membranes and advanced polymers to be co-processed, thus enabling a dual-use application of both acoustic emission and static strain sensing. The sensor's ability to document quasi-static bending is also demonstrated and compared with an ultrasonic transducer, which provides no significant response. This dual-use application is proposed to effectively combine the uses of both strain and ultrasonic transducer sensor types within one sensor, making it a novel and useful method for nondestructive evaluations. The potential benefits include an enhanced sensitivity, a reduced sensor size, a lower cost, and a reduced instrumentation complexity.

Flexible CNT/silicon piezo-resistive strain sensors geometrical influences on sensitivity for human motion detection

Flexible CNT/silicon piezo-resistive strain sensors geometrical influences on sensitivity for human motion detection

Optimizing wearable motion tracking by assessing sagittal joint angle accuracy with minimal sensor use

Introduction
 Wearable motion tracking technology often focuses on reducing the number of sensors to simplify design and lower costs. Research has shown that single IMUs can reconstruct leg kinematics (Gholami et al., 2020; Hossain et al., 2022; Lim et al., 2020) and ground reaction forces (Jiang et al., 2020) effectively. Additionally, model-based methods have demonstrated the feasibility of using fewer gyroscopes to estimate stride length and motion range in healthy individuals and patients with coxarthritis (Salarian et al., 2013). In this study, we aim to assess the precision of sagittal joint angle estimations using strain sensors while minimizing sensor count.
 Methods
 We conducted a study with ten participants based on our previous work that involved collecting single-leg treadmill running data to monitor lower limb joint angles with piezoresistive strain sensors. Subjects ran on an instrumented treadmill at 8-10 km/h, wearing athletic pants embedded with nine strain sensors located on the hip, knee, and ankle. Optical motion capture provided reference kinematics. Our prior research achieved less than 1.5° error in the sagittal plane using a machine-learning approach. The current study explores the extent to which sensor reduction is possible without meaningful loss of accuracy. Three evaluation measures were used for assessment: Pearson correlation, dynamic time warping, and root-mean-squared error.
 Results
 The results from our correlation analysis will be used to develop a model that optimally balances between accuracy and minimizing the number of sensors. This has practical implications in sports science, where athletes could benefit from less intrusive and more comfortable performance monitoring, and in healthcare, for remote monitoring of patients with mobility issues.
 References
 Gholami, M., Napier, C., & Menon, C. (2020). Estimating lower extremity running gait kinematics with a single accelerometer: A deep learning approach. Sensors, 20(10), Article 2939. https://doi.org/10.3390/s20102939
 Hossain, M. S., Bin, Dranetz, J., Choi, H., & Guo, Z. (2022). DeepBBWAE-Net: A CNN-RNN based deep superlearner for estimating lower extremity sagittal plane joint kinematics using shoe-mounted IMU sensors in daily living. IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics, 26(8), 3906-3917. https://doi.org/10.1109/jbhi.2022.3165383
 Jiang, X., Napier, C., Hannigan, B., Eng, J. J., & Menon, C. (2020). Estimating vertical ground reaction force during walking using a single inertial sensor. Sensors, 20(15), Article 4345. https://doi.org/10.3390/s20154345
 Lim, H., Kim, B., & Park, S. (2020). Prediction of lower limb kinetics and kinematics during walking by a single IMU on the lower back using machine learning. Sensors, 20(1), Article 130. https://doi.org/10.3390/s20010130
 Salarian, A., Burkhard, P. R., Vingerhoets, F. J. G., Jolles, B. M., & Aminian, K. (2013). A novel approach to reducing number of sensing units for wearable gait analysis systems. IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, 60(1), 72–77. https://doi.org/10.1109/TBME.2012.2223465

Comparative analysis for strain response and life monitoring of composite using carbon-based nanosensors

Sensing technology based on carbon nanomaterials has become a very promising technology in the field of composite health monitoring, which requires high-sensitivity piezoresistive strain sensors to serve. In this study, two different carbon nano-sensors were used. Based on the traditional carbon nano-paper sensor, a flexible printed circuit and a polysulfone membrane were added to ensure the stability and sensitivity of the sensor. The conductive mechanism of adjacent carbon nanotubes (CNT) was analyzed. The electrical network model inside the carbon nanosensor was established, and its working mechanism during loading and unloading was described. The research mainly adopts three-point bending experiment. The deformation and failure of composite laminates containing two kinds of sensors under load experience low strain and high strain cyclic loading. Both sensors have the same response and stability as the load growth trend. Experiments show that the CNT-Paper sensor is suitable for long-term health monitoring of composite materials. The carbon nanotube-ultrafiltration membrane (CNT-UM) sensor is more sensitive to the cyclic monitoring of small strain.

Bio‐Disintegrable Elastic Polymers for Stretchable Piezoresistive Strain Sensors

AbstractThe fast‐growing usage of electronics is creating large amounts of e‐waste (electronic waste), most of which are directly sent into landfills or incinerated as recycling is either impractical or too costly. Therefore, it is believed that degradable, environmentally friendly materials are the solution to this pressing issue. Herein, disintegrable, durable, and highly stretchable strain sensors are developed based on elastic thin films made of sodium carboxymethyl cellulose, glycerol, and polyvinyl alcohol. The polymer thin films show a failure strain up to ≈ 330% and low hysteresis (5.74% at the second cycle) when subjected to 50% cyclic strain, due to the formation of inter or intramolecular hydrogen bonds. Carbon nanofibers with Au thin film are deposited on the elastic thin film, resulting in highly stretchable piezoresistive strain sensors with a maximum gauge factor of 1.7. More interestingly, the as‐developed sensors can be completely broken down in hot water (at ≈ 95 °C) within ≈ 25 min, indicating their remarkable disintegrability. This unique characteristic is expected to contribute to environmental sustainability. The applications of the sensor for joint bending recognition as well as physiological sign measurement have been demonstrated.

Uniform Synthesis of Bilayer Hydrogen Substituted Graphdiyne for Flexible Piezoresistive Applications.

Graphdiyne (GDY) has garnered significant attention as a cutting-edge 2D material owing to its distinctive electronic, optoelectronic, and mechanical properties, including high mobility, direct bandgap, and remarkable flexibility. One of the key challenges hindering the implementation of this material in flexible applications is its large area and uniform synthesis. The facile growth of centimeter-scale bilayer hydrogen substituted graphdiyne (Bi-HsGDY) on germanium (Ge) substrate is achieved using a low-temperature chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. This material's field effect transistors (FET) showcase a high carrier mobility of 52.6cm2 V-1 s-1 and an exceptionally low contact resistance of 10Ωµm. By transferring the as-grown Bi-HsGDY onto a flexible substrate, a long-distance piezoresistive strain sensor is demonstrated, which exhibits a remarkable gauge factor of 43.34 with a fast response time of ≈275ms. As a proof of concept, communication by means of Morse code is implemented using a Bi-HsGDY strain sensor. It is believed that these results are anticipated to open new horizons in realizing Bi-HsGDY for innovative flexible device applications.

Recycling of Flyash: Route toward high-performance, eco-friendly, and cost-effective flexible strain sensor via synergizing multi-walled carbon nanotubes

Along with the widespread utilization of wearable and portable electronics, the rise of sensitive flexible strain sensors with wide detection range, excellent stability and affordable costs emerges as a substantial crux of this domain. Herein, we present a convenient and scalable approach for constructing high-performance flexible piezoresistive strain sensor by rationally assembling Flyash/Multi-carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) active sensing hybrids. Owing to the unique heterostructure of Flyash/MWCNTs wherein Flyash is anchored with MWCNTs via polydopamine, the active sensing hybrids accommodated by porous polyurethane enables a sophisticated conductive network and large tensile deformability, permitting outstanding gauge factor of 1379, wide strain detection range of 0–100 %, remarkable operation stability and durability. Furthermore, the feasibility of sensor in human motions monitoring is validated. For the first time, the synergy of Flyash and MWCNTs demonstrates effective in advancing the sensing performance of piezoresistive strain sensor, providing a new sight towards high-performance, eco-friendly, and cost-effective flexible strain sensor.

A flexible piezoresistive strain sensor based on MXene/bacterial cellulose hydrogel with high mechanical strength for real-time monitoring of human motions

A piezoresistive hydrogel sensor composed of bacterial cellulose and MXene nanosheets shows real-time stress sensing abilities at different amplitudes of human motions and maintains its sensing ability underwater.

Flexible piezo-resistive strain sensors using all-polydimethylsiloxane based hybrid nanocomposites for wearable electronics.

We report flexible piezo-resistive strain sensors composed of silver nanoparticle (Ag NP), graphene nanoplatelet (GNP), and multi walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT)-based ternary conductive hybrid nanocomposites as an active sensing layer fabricated using a simple solution processing method on flexible polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrates. The electrical characteristics have been studied in PDMS-based flexible devices having three different kinds of structures, namely Ag NPs/MWCNT/PDMS, GNP/PDMS and Ag NPs/GNP/PDMS. The microscopic analysis of the hybrid nanocomposites is undertaken using field emission scanning electron microscopy. The diameter of the CNTs is found to be in the range of 20-40 nm, whereas the length is determined to be 100-800 nm. The average diameter and length of the GNPs are observed to be 30-50 nm and 100-500 nm, respectively. The crystallite size of the silver nanoparticles in the Ag NPs/MWCNT/PDMS and Ag NPs/GNP/PDMS-based nanocomposites is determined to be 22.8 nm and 29.1 nm, respectively. The prepared sample of Ag NPs shows four distinct peaks in the X-ray diffraction pattern, which correspond to the (111), (200), (220), and (311) face-centered cubic (FCC) crystalline planes. Raman spectroscopy is undertaken to study the fundamental physical properties and chemical analysis of the nanocomposites. Ag NPs/GNP/PDMS-based sensors exhibit superior performance in terms of sensitivity, response and recovery time during breathing/unbreathing analysis. The large surface area of the Ag NPs and GNPs promotes uniform distribution of Ag NPs to fill into the porous GNP surface, thereby facilitating high contact area along with better electron transport in the Ag NPs/GNP/PDMS hybrid nanocomposite-based sensors. The gauge factor (GF), response and recovery time of the Ag NPs/GNP/PDMS hybrid nanocomposite-based sensors are determined to be 221, 130 ms and 119 ms, respectively. The ternary conductive nanocomposite-based sensors are free from the drawbacks of binary nanocomposite-based sensors where the high percolation threshold and poor mechanical behaviour lead to the degradation of the device performance.

Aerosol Jet Printing of Strain Sensors for Soft Robotics

The field of soft robotics is rapidly progressing toward applications including; wearable electronics, prosthetics, and biomedical devices. This is leading to demand for flexible, embedded high‐performance strain sensors to deliver real‐time feedback on the static configurations and dynamic motions of these robotic devices, to ultimately enable the levels of autonomous control and structural monitoring required for intelligent manipulation. Herein, aerosol jet printing (AJP) technology is utilized to generate arbitrary piezoresistive strain sensor layouts on fibrous paper suitable for direct integration into elastomeric soft robots. A custom graphene nanoplatelet ink with a viscosity of around 2.70 cP has been formulated for optimized atomization and patterning of conductive traces via AJP. Single and multilayer printing onto different paper substrates are explored; with the nominal resistance of the printed tracks varying from 272 to 4900 kΩ depending on paper type and number of layers. Maximum gauge factors of 24.2 ± 1.8 and 56.5 ± 4.5 are determined for sensor surfaces under tensile and compression modes, respectively. To demonstrate the possibility for direct integration of this approach for soft robotics, strain sensors are directly printed onto the strain‐limiting layer of a pneumatic soft robotic gripper, to provide continuous feedback of the gripper over curvatures up to 80 m−1.

Bacterial cellulose nanofiber-reinforced PVA conductive organohydrogel for flexible strain sensors with high sensitivity and durability

Flexible strain sensors based on conductive organohydrogels have aroused wide range of interests owing to their potential utilization in human health and motion detecting. However, the mechanical performance and sensitivity of the organohydrogel sensors need to be further optimized. Herein, we have designed a dual-network organohydrogel utilizing poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) as raw materials, bacterial cellulose (BC) nanofibers as reinforcements, tannic acid (TA) as crosslinkers and multiwall carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as conducting fillers. The constructed C-PVA/BC/CNT organohydrogel shows good mechanical properties and high sensitivity. The resistance of the C-PVA/BC/CNT organohydrogel can be remarkably changed during deformation, demonstrating superior synchronicity between mechanical stimulus and electric signals, and thus can be used as piezoresistive strain sensors. In addition, the C-PVA/BC/CNT organohydrogel also exhibits favorable durability under different strains, and excellent cycling stability during loading/unloading processes. This C-PVA/BC/CNT organohydrogel can be used to monitor human motion and physiological activities, and has great potential applications in wearable electronic devices.

Advancing Smart Textiles: Structural Evolution of Knitted Piezoresistive Strain Sensors for Enabling Precise Motion Capture.

Recently, there has been remarkable progress in the development of smart textiles, especially knitted strain sensors, to achieve reliable sensor signals. Stable and reliable electro-mechanical properties of sensors are essential for using textile-based sensors in medical applications. However, the challenges associated with significant hysteresis and low gauge factor (GF) values remain for using strain sensors for motion capture. To evaluate these issues, a comprehensive investigation of the cyclic electro-mechanical properties of weft-knitted strain sensors was conducted in the present study to develop a drift-free elastic strain sensor with a robust sensor signal for motion capture for medical devices. Several variables are considered in the study, including the variation of the basic knit pattern, the incorporation of the electrically conductive yarn, and the size of the strain sensor. The effectiveness and feasibility of the developed knitted strain sensors are demonstrated through an experimental evaluation, by determining the gauge factor, its nonlinearity, hysteresis, and drift. The developed knitted piezoresistive strain sensors have a GF of 2.4, a calculated drift of 50%, 12.5% hysteresis, and 0.3% nonlinearity in parts.

High‐performance piezoresistive sensors based on transfer‐free large‐area PdSe2 films for human motion and health care monitoring

AbstractTwo‐dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are needed in high‐performance piezoresistive sensors due to their strong strain‐induced bandgap modification and thereby large gauge factors. However, integrating a conventional high‐temperature chemical vapor deposition (CVD)‐grown TMD with a flexible substrate necessitates a transfer process that inevitably degrades the sensing properties of the TMDs and increases the overall fabrication complexity. We present a high‐performance piezoresistive strain sensor that employs large‐area PdSe2 films grown directly on polyimide (PI) substrates via plasma‐assisted selenization of a sputtered Pd film. The reliable strain transfer from the substrate to the PdSe2 film ensures an outstanding strain‐sensing capability of the sensor. Specifically, the sensors have a gauge factor of up to −315 ± 2.1, a response time under 25 ms, a detection limit of 8 × 10−6, and an exceptional stability of over 104 loading–unloading cycles. By attaching the sensors to the skin surface, we demonstrate their application for measuring physiological parameters in health care monitoring, including motion, voice, and arterial pulse vibration. Furthermore, using the PdSe2 film sensor combined with deep learning technology, we achieved intelligent recognition of artery temperature from arterial pulse signals with only a 2% difference between predicted and actual temperatures. The excellent sensing performance, together with the advantages of low‐temperature fabrication and simple device structure, make the PdSe2 film sensor promising for wearable electronics and health care sensing systems.image

Simulation of the role of agglomerations in the tunneling conductivity of polymer/carbon nanotube piezoresistive strain sensors

A 3D Monte Carlo method paired with a percolation model is carried out to predict the electrical resistivity and piezoresistive sensitivity of carbon nanotube (CNT)-polymer piezoresistive sensors. CNTs are randomly dispersed into the insulating layer of a polymer matrix having agglomerated morphologies in some parts. The electrical resistivity of nanocomposite with a defined agglomeration state is determined by considering the tunneling effect between each connected pair of CNTs. The influence of various parameters such as agglomeration radius, percentage, intrinsic properties and geometries of CNTs are investigated. A comparison was made between the analytical results and experimental data. Considering the tunneling behavior in the vicinity of the percolation transition, a good agreement is obtained between the analytical results and experimental data. Monte Carlo simulations indicated that the tunneling resistance with a random distribution of CNTs depends on the level of agglomeration. Results revealed that piezoresistive sensitivity was diminished by larger agglomerations.

Transparent and Stretchable Piezoresistive Strain Sensors with Buckled Indium Tin Oxide Film

AbstractOwing to excellent performance and a simple mechanism, stretchable piezoresistive strain sensors have been applied to human skin for monitoring physical activities, physiological activities, etc. However, it is still a challenge to simultaneously realize highly sensitive and stretchable piezoresistive strain sensors with high optical transparency. This study reports a transparent and stretchable piezoresistive strain sensor with 2D surface buckling by fabricating ultrathin indium tin oxide (ITO) film on the biaxially pre‐stretched polyacrylate (VHB) elastomer followed by pre‐stretch releasing. To the authors' knowledge, semiconductors are applied for a stretchable piezoresistive strain sensor for the first time. Furthermore, this strain sensor exhibits a high sensitivity of 569, a high transparency of 88% and a high biaxial stretchability of 110% at the same time. This device demonstrates the good long‐term stability over 500 stretching–relaxing cycles. The high sensitivity can be mainly attributed to the piezoresistive effect of the semiconductor where carrier mobility and the resulting resistivity can be significantly changed by the strain. The strain sensors attached to human skin are used to monitor many human motions such as chewing, swallowing, breathing, and walking. ITO‐based strain sensors pave the way toward the development of highly stretchable and sensitive wearable electronics.

Multifunctional bacterial cellulose photothermal aerogels with multi-bonded network assisted by carbon nanotube

As one of the important ways to utilize solar energy, it is of great significance to construct composite photothermal materials with high photothermal conversion and multifunctionality for in-depth investigation of their application performance. The nanofiber network and the reactivity of a large number of hydroxyl groups on the surface of environmentally friendly bacterial cellulose (BC) provide a prerequisite for its use as an excellent matrix material. Here, we use bacterial cellulose nanofibers (BCNFs) as the matrix, methyltrimethoxysilane (MTMS) as the crosslinking agent and hydroxylated multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MCNT − OH) as the photothermal absorber and conductive substrate to construct a multifunctional BC photothermal aerogel with multi-bonded network structure. Multiple chemical bond and physical bond interactions are formed between BCNF, MTMS and CNT, and fiber entanglement is combined to make CNT uniformly dispersed. This optimal photothermal aerogel has rich network structure with high hydrophobicity of 147°, compressive strength of 17.62 kPa and high elasticity. It also shows high light absorption of 93.5%, eminent photothermal conversion of 80.4 °C and photothermal stability under 1 kW m−2 irradiation with a low CNT content of 27.1%. Therefore, the photothermal aerogel shows potential of multi-scenario applications in the field of solar-driven high-viscosity crude oil recovery and piezoresistive strain sensors.

Development and testing of a stationary dynamometer using cross-beam-type force-sensing elements for three-axis cutting force measurement in milling operations

This study focused on the development and testing of a stationary dynamometer using force-sensing elements capable of measuring three axes of cutting force during milling operations. The force-sensing element was based on the Maltese cross-beam concept but has been improved and modified to increase sensitivity and reduce interference or cross-talk error. A Finite element analysis was conducted to study strain distribution and determine sensor positions in the force-sensing element. By using four force-sensing elements and several piezoresistive strain sensors, a stationary dynamometer prototype was constructed. A series of calibration tests were performed to evaluate the dynamometer’s sensitivity, linearity, hysteresis, and repeatability over three orthogonal axes. The dynamometer’s dynamic features and functionality for milling applications were examined through modal analysis and real milling tests. Additionally, the end-milling and slot-milling cutting force values were compared to those of a reference dynamometer (Kistler 9129AA). Overall, the experimental results indicated that the proposed stationary dynamometer is a reliable and accurate alternative for measuring cutting force during machining operations and other force measurements.

Electrically Conductive and Highly Stretchable Piezoresistive Polymer Nanocomposites via Oxidative Chemical Vapor Deposition.

Electrically conductive polymer nanocomposites have been the subject of intense research due to their promising potential as piezoresistive biomedical sensors, leveraging their flexibility and biocompatibility. Although intrinsically conductive polymers such as polypyrrole (PPy) and polyaniline have emerged as lucrative candidates, they are extremely limited in their processability by conventional solution-based approaches. In this work, ultrathin nanostructured coatings of doped PPy are realized on polyurethane films of different architectures via oxidative chemical vapor deposition to develop stretchable and flexible resistance-based strain sensors. Holding the substrates perpendicular to the reactant flows facilitates diffusive transport and ensures excellent conformality of the interfacial integrated PPy coatings throughout the 3D porous electrospun fiber mats in a single step. This allows the mechanically robust (stretchability > 400%, with fatigue resistance up to 1000 cycles) nanocomposites to elicit a reversible change of electrical resistance when subjected to consecutive cycles of stretching and releasing. The repeatable performance of the strain sensor is linear due to dimensional changes of the conductive network in the low-strain regime (ε ≤ 50%), while the evolution of nano-cracks leads to an exponential increase, which is observed in the high-strain regime, recording a gauge factor as high as 46 at 202% elongational strain. The stretchable conductive polymer nanocomposites also show biocompatibility toward human dermal fibroblasts, thus providing a promising path for use as piezoresistive strain sensors and finding applications in biomedical applications such as wearable, skin-mountable flexible electronics.