writer：Shuai Wang,a Peng Xiao,a Yun Liang,a Jiawei Zhang,a Youju Huang,* Si Wu, Shiao-Wei Kuo,c and Tao
keywords：Wearable Strain Sensors
source：期刊
specific source：Journal of Materials Chemistry C
Issue time：2018年
As an imitation of human skin’s tactile sensing ability, flexible and stretchable strain sensors are highly desirable because of their various applications in health monitoring, robotics, human-machine interfaces. However, it is still a big challenge to fabricate strain sensors with both high sensitivity and broad sensing range. Here we report a simple, low cost and scalable fabrication strategy to construct high performance strain sensors based on network cracks formed in multilayer carbon nanotubes (CNTs) films/polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composites. The microscopic thickness of multilayer CNTs can be precisely controlled to tune the formation of network cracks in CNTs films /PDMS composite, which is critical for simultaneously amplifying the sensitivity signal and sensing range of strain sensors. The optimized CNTs films /PDMS composite under appropriate stretch force would fracture into gaps, islands, and bridges connecting separated islands. The formed network cracks easily result in both high gauge factor (maximum value of 87) and a wide sensing range (up to 100%) of strain sensor, which allows to detect minimum strain of 0.007% with excellent stability (1500 cycles), making it suitable for both subtle and large strain detection including subtle signals of artery pulses, music vibration and large scale motions of joint bending