Highly Stretchable and Sensitive Strain Sensor Based on Facilely Prepared Three-Dimensional Graphene Foam Composite

Wearable strain sensors with excellent stretchability and sensitivity have emerged as a very promising field which could be used for human motion detection and biomechanical systems, etc. Three-dimensional (3D) graphene foam (GF) has been reported before for high-performance strain sensors, however, some problems such as high cost preparation, low sensitivity, and stretchability still remain. In this paper, we report a highly stretchable and sensitive strain sensor based on 3D GF and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composite. The GF is prepared by assembly process from graphene oxide via a facile and scalable method and possesses excellent mechanical property which facilitates the infiltration of PDMS prepolymer into the graphene framework. The as-prepared strain sensor can be stretched as high as 30% of its original length and the gauge factor of this sensor is as high as 98.66 under 5% of applied strain. Moreover, the strain sensor shows long-term stability in 200 cycles of stretching relaxing. Implementation of the device for monitoring the bending of elbow and finger results in reproducibility and various responses in the form of resistance change. Thus, the developed strain sensors exhibit great application potential in fields of biomechanical systems and human-interactive applications.