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Enhancing the sensitivity of crack-based strain sensor assembled by functionalized graphene for human motion detection

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Abstract

Human motion detection needs sensors with flexibility, high sensitivity and linearity. However, conventional strain sensors are rigid and not suitable for human motion detection applications. Graphene-based strain sensors can overcome the above challenges but currently are still in the infancy of their development. In this work, properties of graphene-based crack-type strain sensors are investigated and guidelines to improve the sensitivity of graphene films as sensing elements are developed. First, it is found that the pre-strains influences the crack morphology and density, which further results in different sensor sensitivities and linearity. Second, the graphene film thickness influences the crack density due to the sliding between graphene layers; namely, a thinner graphene film with more cracks exhibits higher sensitivity. Third, the substrate influences the bonding strength with the graphene film, leading to different crack formations, which results in adjusted sensitivity. The cracks on PDMS are channel cracks while those on epoxy are isolated short cracks. The channel cracks are preferred to cause high sensitivity while the isolated short cracks hardly have a blocking effect on the current transport. Finally, the optimized graphene strain sensors are used to detect various human motions and exhibit high sensitivity.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Engineering and Technology, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, China

    YueHua Huang, Yi Xiang, WenTao Ren & ChuanCheng Li

  2. State Key Laboratory of Tribology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    YueHua Huang

  3. Center for Advanced Thin Films and Devices, School of Materials and Energy, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, China

    FengJi Li

  4. Tribology Research Institute, School of Mechanical Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, 610031, China

    TingTing Yang

Authors
  1. YueHua Huang
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  2. Yi Xiang
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  3. WenTao Ren
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  4. FengJi Li
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  5. ChuanCheng Li
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  6. TingTing Yang
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to YueHua Huang or TingTing Yang.

Additional information

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51802293), the Tribology Science Fund of State Key Laboratory of Tribology of China (Grant No. SKLTKF20B02), and the Innovation Funds for Chongqing’s Overseas Returnees (Grant No. cx2019081).

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Huang, Y., Xiang, Y., Ren, W. et al. Enhancing the sensitivity of crack-based strain sensor assembled by functionalized graphene for human motion detection. Sci. China Technol. Sci. 64, 1805–1813 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-021-1856-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-021-1856-6

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