Wearable tensile strain sensors have aroused substantial attention on account of their exciting applications in rebuilding tactile inputs of human and intelligent robots. Conventional such devices, however, face the dilemma of both sensitive response to pressure and bending stimulations, and poor breathability for wearing comfort. In this paper, a breathable, pressure and bending insensitive strain sensor is reported, which presents fascinating properties including high sensitivity and remarkable linearity (gauge factor of 49.5 in strain 0-100%, R 2 = 99.5%), wide sensing range (up to 200%), as well as superior permeability to moisture, air, and water vapor. On the other hand, it exhibits negligible response to wide-range pressure (0-100 kPa) and bending (0-75%) inputs. This work provides a new route for achieving wearing comfortable, high-performance, and anti-jamming strain sensors.
E-textile
consisting of natural fabrics has become a promising material to construct
wearable sensors due to its comfortability and breathability on the
human body. However, the reported fabric-based e-textile materials,
such as graphene-treated cotton, silk, and flax, generally suffer
from the electrical and mechanical instability in long-term wearing.
In particular, fabrics on the human body have to endure heat variation,
moisture evaporation from metabolic activities, and even the immersion
with body sweat. To face the above challenges, here we report a wool-knitted
fabric sensor treated with graphene oxide (GO) dyeing followed by l-ascorbic acid (l-AA) reduction (rGO). This rGO-based
strain sensor is highly stretchable, washable, and durable with rapid
sensing response. It exhibits excellent linearity with more than 20%
elongation and, most importantly, withstand moisture from 30 to 90%
(or even immersed with water) and still maintains good electrical
and mechanical properties. We further demonstrate that, by integrating
this proposed material with the near-field communication (NFC) system,
a batteryless, wireless wearable body movement sensor can be constructed.
This material can find wide use in smart garment applications.
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