Stretchable And Flexible High-sensitive Strain Sensors Based On Ag Nanoparticles/carbon Nanotubes

Recently, with the development of flexible and stretchable electronics, the rigid and brittle electronic devices have been imparted mechanical compliance and bio-compatibility, which paving the way for energy-efficient, lightweight, portable,wearable and even implantable electronics. Multifunctional sensors, in particular, with sensing abilities akin to or beyond those of human skin, are essential for applications such as interactive electronics, structural health monitoring, smart clothing, robotic systems with advanced sensing capabilities, human motion detection and so on. Among the various types of sensors, strain sensor is one of the most important smart sensors. Actually,mechanical compliance and large strain range, obviously not the case of conventional strain sensor, are required to meet the demands of wearable electronics, human motion detection and interactive robots.This essay designed and manufactured a kind of flexible and stretchable strain sensor,which are made using Ag nanoparticles / carbon nanotubes. We studied the effects of siliver nanoparticles on the sensor’s performance.Strain sensors were prepared by simple immersion method in Ag nanoparticles/carbon nanotubes solution on spandex fibre. We tested the effect of the silver particle size,concentration ratio of carbon nanotubes and silver particles, immersion times on the performance of the sensor. The device is very sensitive not only to large tensile strain, but also to small compressive strain. When stretched 200%, the sensor’s strain sensitivity is up to 39.62, which are 10 times higher than the strain sensor made of carbon nanotubes. The sensor can detected the mechanical strain as small as 0.158%, and the sensitivity is 5.86.The excellent performance greatly expands the use range of this strain sensor.