Carbon nanotube sponges are synthesized by chemical vapor deposition, in which nanotubes are self‐assembled into a three‐dimensionally interconnected framework. The sponges are very light, highly porous, hydrophobic in pristine form, and can be elastically and reversibly deformed into any shape. The sponges can float on water surfaces and absorb large‐area spreading oil films (see images), suggesting promising environmental applications.

Figure 3. Schematic illustration of fabrication of (a) individual spherical porous polymers from solid spherical nanoparticle templates, (b) tubular porous polymers from tubular porous templates, such as AAO, and (c) ordered macroporous polymers from colloidal crystal templates.

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Sensing strain of soft materials in small scale has attracted increasing attention. In this work, graphene woven fabrics (GWFs) are explored for highly sensitive sensing. A fl exible and wearable strain sensor is assembled by adhering the GWFs on polymer and medical tape composite fi lm. The sensor exhibits the following features: ultra-light, relatively good sensitivity, high reversibility, superior physical robustness, easy fabrication, ease to follow human skin deformation, and so on. Some weak human motions are chosen to test the notable resistance change, including hand clenching, phonation, expression change, blink, breath, and pulse. Because of the distinctive features of high sensitivity and reversible extensibility, the GWFs based piezoresistive sensors have wide potential applications in fi elds of the displays, robotics, fatigue detection, body monitoring, and so forth.