The revolutionary and pioneering advancements of flexible electronics provide the boundless potential to become one of the leading trends in the exploitation of wearable devices and electronic skin. Working as substantial intermediates for the collection of external mechanical signals, flexible strain sensors that get intensive attention are regarded as indispensable components in flexible integrated electronic systems. Compared with conventional preparation methods including complicated lithography and transfer printing, 3D printing technology is utilized to manufacture various flexible strain sensors owing to the low processing cost, superior fabrication accuracy, and satisfactory production efficiency. Herein, up-to-date flexible strain sensors fabricated via 3D printing are highlighted, focusing on different printing methods based on photocuring and materials extrusion, including Digital Light Processing (DLP), fused deposition modeling (FDM), and direct ink writing (DIW). Sensing mechanisms of 3D printed strain sensors are also discussed. Furthermore, the existing bottlenecks and future prospects are provided for further progressing research.
Flexible
strain sensors have been widely investigated with their
rapid development in human-machine interfaces, soft robots, and medical
care monitoring. Here, we report a new in situ catalytic strategy
toward the fabrication of metallic aerogel hybrids, which are composed
of vanadium nitride (VN) nanosheets decorated with well-defined vertically
aligned carbon nanotube arrays (VN/CNTs) for the first time. In this
architecture, the two-dimensional VN nanosheets as the main bone structure
are favorable for the flexible devices due to their excellent structural
compatibility during the repetitive deforming process. In addition,
the sandwiched aerogel hybrids form highly conductive 3D network,
affording outstanding sensitivity for the strain-responsive behaviors.
Further, the VN/CNTs-based flexible strain sensors are successfully
fabricated, showing a high gauge factor of 386 within a small strain
of 10%, fast response, and extraordinary durability. The monitoring
of physical signals and an actual real-time human-machine controlling
system based on the sensors are also presented.
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