Polymer-Enhanced Highly Stretchable Conductive Fiber Strain Sensor Used for Electronic Data Gloves

Design of fiber strain sensors with high conductivity, good stability, and excellent flexibility is a key procedure to develop high-performance electronic data gloves. Herein, a highly stretchable conductive fiber strain sensor is developed based on the P(VDF-TrFE) polymer nanofibers mat and silver nanowires layer. The conductive fiber sensor exhibits high gauge factor of 5.326, rapid response of 20 ms, and outstanding durability after 10 000 strain cycles. The fiber strain sensor also has the ability to detect bend and torsion deformation with a broad sensing range. These superior features have made it possible to monitor vigorous motions (finger bending or stretching) and subtle physiological signals (pulse and phonation) precisely. The smart data glove integrated with ten-channel circuit in each joint of fingers can recognize various gestures in real time by detecting the motions of fingers, which makes it possible for the application in the future intelligent wearable electronics, such as virtual reality and human-machine interfacing devices.