A highly stretchable strain sensor based on electrospun carbon nanofibers for human motion monitoring

Highly stretchable and sensitive strain sensors are in great demand for human motion monitoring. This work reports a strain sensor based on electrospun carbon nanofibers (CNFs) embedded in a polyurethane (PU) matrix. The piezoresistive properties and the strain sensing mechanism of the CNFs/PU sensor were investigated. The results showed that the CNFs/PU sensor had high stretchability of strain up to 300%, a high sensitivity of gauge factor as large as 72, and superior stability and reproducibility during the 8000 stretch/release cycles. Furthermore, bending of finger, wrist, or elbow was recorded by the resistance change of the sensor, demonstrating that the strain sensor based on CNFs/PU could have promising applications in flexible and wearable devices for human motion monitoring.