Ultrasensitive Human Technology Systems Design and Stretchable Strain Sensors for Wearable Electronic Applications

Abstract

Flexible and wearable strain sensors with remarkable performance are in tremendous demand with significant advancement of wearable electronics. In this work, a Dragon skin/graphite nanoflakes (GNFs)/Dragon skin sandwich structured nanocomposite strain sensor is employed for wearable strain sensing applications. The active sensor material based on highly conductive GNFs was successfully coated onto the epidermis-like Dragon skin elastomeric matrix utilizing a low-cost spray coating process. Moreover, the Dragon skin/GNFs/Dragon skin sandwich structured nanocomposite strain sensors demonstrate many fascinating merits including ultra-high sensitivity (a gauge factor of 41,326.15 in the strain range of 1.6-2.3%), a strain range of up to 50%, a quick response time (80 ms), prominent linearity, and excellent durability (more than 600 stretch-release cycles under a large-scale strain of 30%), and as a result, exhibits captivating perspectives for the monitoring of whole-range human motions including small-scale facial expressions (cheek expansion and relaxation, eye blinking, and frowning), laryngeal prominence movement, and large-scale human joint bending motions (finger, elbow, wrist, and knee bending), thereby specifying promising potential in healthcare monitoring, sports performance monitoring, human-machine interaction, and soft robotics.