A wide sensing range and high sensitivity flexible strain sensor based on carbon nanotubes and MXene

Bingbing Xu, Feng Ye, Ronghu Chen, Xiaogang Luo, Guangtao Chang, Ruoxin Li

College of Textile and Clothing Engineering, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China. Jiangsu Engineering Research Center of Textile Dyeing and Printing for Energy Conservation, Discharge Reduction and Cleaner Production (ERC), Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China.

Flexible and multifunctional strain sensors have attracted extensive concern owing to the promising applications in wearable devices, artificial intelligence, and health monitoring. However, the strain sensor with a high gauge factor (GF) and broad working range remains a big challenge. In this work, we developed a multifunctional strain sensor by incorporating carbon nanotubes (CNT) and MXene onto a porous polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) sponge. The resultant PDMS/CNT@MXene sensor exhibits a wide sensing range (105% strain), high sensitivity (GF = 1939), rapid response speed (response/recovery time of 158/160 ms), sufficient reliability and stability under the repeated stretching, compression, and bending cycles. The sensor can be applied for detecting a variety of body actions as well as medical diagnosis, such as various joint movements, phonation detecting, pulse beats, and handwriting. Therefore, our present sensor demonstrates powerful potential applications in smart clothing, flexible electronics, and human health monitoring.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ceramint.2021.12.235