Inspiration from Daily Goods: A Low-Cost, Facilely
Fabricated, and Environment-Friendly Strain Sensor Based on Common
Carbon Ink and Elastic Core-Spun Yarn
posted on 2019-10-10, 14:33authored byZaihua Duan, Yadong Jiang, Si Wang, Zhen Yuan, Qiuni Zhao, Guangzhong Xie, Xiaosong Du, Huiling Tai
Cost
and fabrication technique, as two important factors affecting
the development and practical applications of electronic devices,
have attracted extensive attention of researchers. In order to overcome
the shortcomings of high-cost raw materials and complex fabrication
process, in the present work, a low-cost (the cost of per strain sensor
is less than one cent ($0.01)) and environment-friendly strain sensor
based on common daily goods of carbon ink and elastic core-spun yarn
is fabricated by a facile solution processing method. The results
show that the as-fabricated strain sensor possesses acceptable sensitivity
(a gauge factor of 6.1 under the strain range of 0.5–20%) and
rapid response and recovery speed (response/recovery times under a
strain of 10%: 110/80 ms). Moreover, the facile solution processing
method and tailorable length of the elastic core-spun yarn allow it
to be fabricated into strain sensors with different specifications
for meeting the needs of various application situations. Based on
its many advantages, the strain sensor is successfully used for monitoring
multiple human motions. This facile approach can be used for developing
low-cost strain sensors and also provides inspiration for developing
new applications of the daily goods such as carbon ink in electronic
field.