scholarly journals Multipoint-Detection Strain Sensor with a Single Electrode Using Optical Ultrasound Generated by Carbon Nanotubes

Sensors ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (18) ◽  
pp. 3877
Author(s):  
Won Young Choi ◽  
Hyeong Geun Jo ◽  
Soo Won Kwon ◽  
Young Hun Kim ◽  
Joo Young Pyun ◽  
...  

With the development of wearable devices, strain sensors have attracted large interest for the detection of human motion, movement, and breathing. Various strain sensors consisting of stretchable conductive materials have been investigated based on resistance and capacitance differences according to the strain. However, this method requires multiple electrodes for multipoint detection. We propose a strain sensor capable of multipoint detection with a single electrode, based on the ultrasound pulse–echo method. It consists of several transmitters of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and a single polyvinylidene fluoride receiver. The strain sensor was fabricated using CNTs embedded in stretchable polydimethylsiloxane. The received data are characterized by the different times of transmission from the CNTs of each point depending on the strain, i.e., the sensor can detect the positions of the CNTs. This study demonstrates the application of the multipoint strain sensor with a single electrode for measurements up to a strain of 30% (interval of 1%). We considered the optical and acoustic energy losses in the sensor design. In addition, to evaluate the utility of the sensor, finger bending with three-point CNTs and flexible phantom bending with six-point CNTs for the identification of an S-curve having mixed expansion and compression components were carried out.

Micromachines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 716
Author(s):  
Rong Dong ◽  
Jianbing Xie

In this paper, stretchable strain sensors with a controllable negative resistance sensitivity coefficient are firstly proposed. In order to realize the sensor with a negative resistance sensitivity coefficient, a stretchable stress sensor with sandwich structure is designed in this paper. Carbon nanotubes are added between two layers of silica gel. When the sensor is stretched, carbon nanotubes will be squeezed at the same time, so the sensor will show a resistance sensitivity coefficient that the resistance becomes smaller after stretching. First, nanomaterials are coated on soft elastomer, then a layer of silica gel is wrapped on the outside of the nanomaterials. In this way, similar to sandwich biscuits, a stretchable strain sensor with controllable negative resistance sensitivity coefficient has been obtained. Because the carbon nanotubes are wrapped between two layers of silica gel, when the silica gel is stretched, the carbon nanotubes will be squeezed longitudinally, which increases their density and resistance. Thus, a stretchable strain sensor with negative resistance sensitivity coefficient can be realized, and the resistivity can be controlled and adjusted from 12.7 Ω·m to 403.2 Ω·m. The sensor can be used for various tensile testing such as human motion monitoring, which can effectively expand the application range of conventional tensile strain sensor.


Coatings ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 792 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hsuan-Ling Kao ◽  
Cheng-Lin Cho ◽  
Li-Chun Chang ◽  
Chun-Bing Chen ◽  
Wen-Hung Chung ◽  
...  

A fully inkjet-printed strain sensor based on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) was fabricated in this study for microstrain and microcrack detection. Carbon nanotubes and silver films were used as the sensing layer and conductive layer, respectively. Inkjet-printed CNTs easily undergo agglomeration due to van der Waals forces between CNTs, resulting in uneven films. The uniformity of CNT film affects the electrical and mechanical properties. Multi-pass printing and pattern rotation provided precise quantities of sensing materials, enabling the realization of uniform CNT films and stable resistance. Three strain sensors printed eight-layer CNT film by unidirectional printing, rotated by 180° and 90° were compared. The low density on one side of eight-layer CNT film by unidirectional printing results in more disconnection and poor connectivity with the silver film, thereby, significantly increasing the resistance. For 180° rotation eight-layer strain sensors, lower sensitivity and smaller measured range were found because strain was applied to the uneven CNT film resulting in non-uniform strain distribution. Lower resistance and better strain sensitivity was obtained for eight-layer strain sensor with 90° rotation because of uniform film. Given the uniform surface morphology and saturated sheet resistance of the 20-layer CNT film, the strain performance of the 20-layer CNT strain sensor was also examined. Excluding the permanent destruction of the first strain, 0.76% and 1.05% responses were obtained for the 8- and 20-layer strain sensors under strain between 0% and 3128 µε, respectively, which demonstrates the high reproducibility and recoverability of the sensor. The gauge factor (GF) of 20-layer strain sensor was found to be 2.77 under strain from 71 to 3128 µε, which is higher than eight-layer strain sensor (GF = 1.93) due to the uniform surface morphology and stable resistance. The strain sensors exhibited a highly linear and reversible behavior under strain of 71 to 3128 µε, so that the microstrain level could be clearly distinguished. The technology of the fully inkjet-printed CNT-based microstrain sensor provides high reproducibility, stability, and rapid hardness detection.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Wei Qiu ◽  
Shi-Lei Li ◽  
Wei-lin Deng ◽  
Di Gao ◽  
Yi-Lan Kang

A strain sensor composed of carbon nanotubes with Raman spectroscopy can achieve measurement of the three in-plane strain components in microscale. Based on previous work on the mathematic model of carbon nanotube strain sensors, this paper presents a detailed study on the optimization, diversification, and standardization of a CNT strain sensor from the viewpoint of metrology. A new miniaccessory for polarization control is designed, and two different preparing methods for CNT films as sensing media are introduced to provide diversified choices for applications. Then, the standard procedure of creating CNT strain sensors is proposed. Application experiments confirmed the effectiveness of the above improvement, which is helpful in developing this method for convenient metrology.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (7) ◽  
pp. 2531
Author(s):  
Yelin Ko ◽  
Ji-seon Kim ◽  
Chi Cuong Vu ◽  
Jooyong Kim

Flexible strain sensors are receiving a great deal of interest owing to their prospective applications in monitoring various human activities. Among various efforts to enhance the sensitivity of strain sensors, pre-crack generation has been well explored for elastic polymers but rarely on textile substrates. Herein, a highly sensitive textile-based strain sensor was fabricated via a dip-coat-stretch approach: a polyester woven elastic band was dipped into ink containing single-walled carbon nanotubes coated with silver paste and pre-stretched to generate prebuilt cracks on the surface. Our sensor demonstrated outstanding sensitivity (a gauge factor of up to 3550 within a strain range of 1.5–5%), high stability and durability, and low hysteresis. The high performance of this sensor is attributable to the excellent elasticity and woven structure of the fabric substrate, effectively generating and propagating the prebuilt cracks. The strain sensor integrated into firefighting gloves detected detailed finger angles and cyclic finger motions, demonstrating its capability for subtle human motion monitoring. It is also noteworthy that this novel strategy is a very quick, straightforward, and scalable method of fabricating strain sensors, which is extremely beneficial for practical applications.


Nanoscale ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (28) ◽  
pp. 13599-13606 ◽  
Author(s):  
Binghao Liang ◽  
Zhiqiang Lin ◽  
Wenjun Chen ◽  
Zhongfu He ◽  
Jing Zhong ◽  
...  

A highly stretchable and sensitive strain sensor based on a gradient carbon nanotube was developed. The strain sensors show an unprecedented combination of both high sensitivity (gauge factor = 13.5) and ultra-stretchability (>550%).


Nanomaterials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 2333
Author(s):  
Huiying Shen ◽  
Huizhen Ke ◽  
Jingdong Feng ◽  
Chenyu Jiang ◽  
Qufu Wei ◽  
...  

Owing to the multi-dimensional complexity of human motions, traditional uniaxial strain sensors lack the accuracy in monitoring dynamic body motions working in different directions, thus multidirectional strain sensors with excellent electromechanical performance are urgently in need. Towards this goal, in this work, a stretchable biaxial strain sensor based on double elastic fabric (DEF) was developed by incorporating carboxylic multi-walled carbon nanotubes(c-MWCNTs) and polypyrrole (PPy) into fabric through simple, scalable soaking and adsorption-oxidizing methods. The fabricated DEF/c-MWCNTs/PPy strain sensor exhibited outstanding anisotropic strain sensing performance, including relatively high sensitivity with the maximum gauge factor (GF) of 5.2, good stretchability of over 80%, fast response time < 100 ms, favorable electromechanical stability, and durability for over 800 stretching–releasing cycles. Moreover, applications of DEF/c-MWCNTs/PPy strain sensor for wearable devices were also reported, which were used for detecting human subtle motions and dynamic large-scale motions. The unconventional applications of DEF/c-MWCNTs/PPy strain sensor were also demonstrated by monitoring complex multi-degrees-of-freedom synovial joint motions of human body, such as neck and shoulder movements, suggesting that such materials showed a great potential to be applied in wearable electronics and personal healthcare monitoring.


NANO ◽  
2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Delin Chen ◽  
Hongmei Zhao ◽  
Weidong Yang ◽  
Dawei Wang ◽  
Xiaowei Huang ◽  
...  

Flexible/stretchable strain sensors have attracted much attention due to their advantages for human-computer interaction, smart wearable and human monitoring. However, there are still great challenges on gaining super durability, quick response, and wide sensing range. This paper provides a simple process to obtain a sensor which is based on graphene (GR)/carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and Ecoflex hybrid, which demonstrates superb endurance (over 1000 cycles at 100% strain), remarkable sensitivity (strain over 125% sensitivity up to 20) and wide sensing range (175%). All results indicate that it is capable for human movement monitoring, such as finger and knee bending and pulse beat. Most importantly, it can be used as a warning function for the night cyclist’s ride. This research provides the feasibility of using this sensor for practical applications.


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