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Highly sensitive graphene platelets and multi-walled carbon nanotube-based flexible strain sensor for monitoring human joint bending

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Abstract

In this paper, we report the fabrication of a high-sensitivity strain sensor fabricated using graphene platelets (GnPs) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) for monitoring joint-bending movement. The optimized ultrasonic time and the ball mill-mixing process make the GnPs disperse evenly in the MWCNTs. The strain sensor made up of the GnP/MWCNT mixture (30 wt% GnPs loading) is fabricated by a spray-method and its conductivity is up to 104 S/m. The as-prepared GnP/MWCNT sensor exhibits relatively high tensile strength of 5.4 MPa, sensing range of 7.5%, gauge factor of 181.36, linearity of 99.545%, and great bending reproducibility over 5000 cycles. These remarkable features endow our sensing devices to monitor joint bending in human health monitoring, e.g., elbow, finger and wrist bending. The results demonstrate that our flexible GnP/MWCNT sensor shows promising applications prospects in smart wearable device monitoring human health.

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Acknowledgements

The financial contributions are gratefully acknowledged. This work was financially supported by National Nature Science Fund (11602150, U1733123), Aeronautical Science Foundation (2017ZE54029), Shenyang science project (18-013-0-23), Natural science foundation of Liaoning Province (20170540695, 20180550751), Scientific Research Fund for Public Welfare of Liaoning province (20170014), Scientific Research Project of Liaoning Provincial Education Department (L201725), China Aerospace Science and Technology Group Innovation Fund (17580404) and Liaoning Province Distinguished Professor Program. The financial contributions are gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenyang Aerospace University (SAU), Shenyang, 110136, China

    Shaowei Lu, Junchi Ma, Keming Ma & Xiangdong Yang

  2. Faculty of Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, Shenyang Aerospace University (SAU), Shenyang, 110136, China

    Xiaoqiang Wang, Shuai Wang & Hailong Tang

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  1. Shaowei Lu
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  2. Junchi Ma
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  3. Keming Ma
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  4. Xiaoqiang Wang
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  5. Shuai Wang
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  7. Hailong Tang
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Correspondence to Shaowei Lu or Keming Ma.

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Lu, S., Ma, J., Ma, K. et al. Highly sensitive graphene platelets and multi-walled carbon nanotube-based flexible strain sensor for monitoring human joint bending. Appl. Phys. A 125, 471 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-019-2765-8

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