The
construction of wearable piezoresistive sensors with high elasticity,
large gauge factor, and excellent durability in a harsh high-temperature
environment is highly desired yet challenging. Here, a lightweight,
superelastic, and fatigue-resistant spongy conductor was fabricated
via a sponge-constrained network assembly, during which highly conductive
graphene and flame-retardant montmorillonite were alternatively deposited
on a three-dimensional melamine scaffold. The as-obtained spongy conductor
exhibited a highly deformation-tolerant conductivity up to 80% strain
and excellent fatigue resistance of 10,000 compressive cycles at 70%
strain. As a result, the spongy conductor can readily work as a piezoresistive
sensor and exhibited a high gauge factor value of ∼2.3 in a
strain range of 60–80% and excellent durability under 60% strain
for 10,000 cycles without sacrificing its piezoresistive performance.
Additionally, the piezoresistive sensor showed great thermal stability
up to 250 °C for more than 7 days and sufficient flame-retardant
performance for at least 20 s. This lightweight, superelastic, and
flame-retardant spongy conductor reveals tremendous potential in human
motion detection against a harsh high-temperature environment.