DefinePK

Abstract

Demand for soft, wearable, stretchable and smart sensors is augmenting because of their flexibility, precision and direct interaction with any medium like fabrics and the human body. Smart strain sensors are highly flexible and sensitive. Stretchable strain sensors can directly mount on clothes (fabrics) or easily attached to the human skin for motion detection very precisely.  Herein, we report a very sensitive, stretchable and flexible smart strain sensor based on a nanocomposite of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and elastic microstructure polymer (EMP). Thin film of AuNPs embedded between the two layers of EMP like sandwich structure. Polymer-based strain sensors can sense the bending angle up to 0º to 160º. The strain sensor-based on AuNPs elastomeric nanocomposite shows tunable gauge factor (GF) 1.5 to 20 with 75% stretchability, 5s of response time and very low creep. When deformed or stretched the AuNPs displace from their original position, this causes a change in resistance which makes it capable of measuring strain. High flexibility, sensitivity, and repeatability of our smart strain sensor make it extremely auspicious for microelectromechanical systems, soft sensors, nanogenerators, smart electronic devices transparent electrodes, and orthotics.