Carbon nanotubes-ecoflex nanocomposite for strain sensing with ultra-high stretchability

Abstract

We developed highly stretchable, flexible and very soft conductors based on the carbon nanotubes (CNTs)-silicone rubber (Ecoflex®) nanocomposite thin films. The resistance of the CNTs-Ecoflex nanocomposite thin film was recovered to its original value under cyclic loading/unloading for strains as large as 510%. Failure strain of the CNTs-Ecoflex nanocomposite was measured to be about ~ 1380% showing its ultra-high stretchability and robustness. As an application of our highly stretchable conductors, we utilized them as skin-mountable and wearable strain sensors for human motion detection. The strain sensors possess high linearity and low hysteresis performance. We observed overshoot behavior of the strain sensors with maximum normalized overshooting peaks 15%. Finally, motion detection of the finger and wrist joints was conducted by using CNTs-Ecoflex nanocomposite thin film strain sensors.