Multiscale nanowire-microfluidic hybrid strain sensors with high sensitivity and stretchability

Abstract

Nanowire-microfluidic strain sensors: a stretchable multi-scale sensing solution By combining metal nanowires and conductive polymers, high-performance stretchable nanowire-microfluidic strain sensors are realized. A team lead by Chuan Liu from the School of Electronics and Information Technology at Sun Yat-Sen University developed a hybrid strain sensor consisting of brittle metal nanowires and conductive polymers. These robust nanowire-microfluidic strain sensors are sensitive to multiscale strains––from 4% to over 400%––and show record-high gauge factor, a figure-of-merit that quantifies the level of sensitivity. The hybrid strain sensor’s high performance is made possible by the electric percolation pathways formed between the parallel nanowire network and the microfluidic channels. The combination of high stretchability and high sensitivity over a large strain range enables the device to be suitable for multiscale sensing. Liu and coworkers demonstrate the applicability of their nanowire-microfluidic strain sensors to human motion detection and human–machine interactive systems.