Washable, transparent and self-sustained sensor based on transparent stretchable electrodes

Abstract

Abstract With the continuous advancement of technology, flexible electronic devices are gradually becoming integrated into our daily lives. These devices exhibit remarkable properties such as flexibility, bending capability, and resilience. One challenge in the development of these devices is to achieve a balance between transparency and conductivity for flexible transparent stretchable electrodes. In this article, a stretchable, transparent and self-powered multifunctional sensor, specifically a stretchable triboelectric nanogenerator (STENG sensor), is fabricated. It is consisting of a friction layer made of a micro-structured polydimethylsiloxane film, and high stretchable electrodes fabricated by spin-coated silver nanowire (AgNW) on thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) film. The TPU/AgNW electrode exhibits a high transparency (85.26%) and conductivity (7.04 Ω sq −1 ) after three spin-coating processes. The STENG sensor has high transparency, high pressure sensitivity (0.014 99 V kPa −1 ) and fast response (20 ms). The sensing performance decreases by only 24% when the deformation reaches 100%.