Environmentally-Friendly and Multifunctional Graphene-Silk Fabric Strain Sensor for Human-Motion Detection

Wearable devices are being intensively investigated in an extensive range of applications, particularly in the field of human motion detection. Herein, a graphene-modified silk fabric strain sensor is fabricated and its satisfactory performance including high sensibility and comfortable fit to the human body is reported. Graphene oxide is coated on silk fabric by vacuum filtration and is reduced by hot press method, which provides the obtained silk fabric strain sensor with good piezoresistivity and being more environmentally friendly compared with chemical reduction. Meanwhile, compared with the other strain sensors, the silk fabric strain sensor shows a linear and high resistance variation rate with increasing strain. Moreover, the fabric sensor also exhibits other excellent performances, including cycle stability, UV-blocking, and hydrophobicity to some extent. Owing to the above advantages, the modified silk fabric sensor can be sewed together with fabric and has the potential to detect human motions.