A stretchable carbon nanotube strain sensor for human-motion detection

Abstract: Flexible strain sensors are an important component for future intelligent robotics. However, the majority of current strain sensors must be electrically connected to a corresponding monitoring system via conducting wires, which increases system complexity and restricts the working environment for monitoring strains. Here, stretchable graphene–polymer nanocomposites that act as strain sensors using a Joule heating effect are reported. When the resistance of the sensor changes in response to a strain, the resulting change in temperature is wirelessly detected in an intelligent robot. By engineering and optimizing the surface structure of graphene–polymer nanocomposites, the fabricated strain sensors exhibit excellent stability when subjected to periodic temperature signals over 400 cycles while being periodically strained and deliver a high strain sensitivity of 7.03 × 10−4 °C−1 %−1 for strain levels of 0% to 30%. As a wearable electronic device, the approach provides the capability to wirelessly monitor small strains for intelligent robots at a high strain resolution of ≈0.1%. Moreover, when the strain sensing system operates as a multichannel structure, it allows precise strain detection simultaneously, or in sequence, for each finger of an intelligent robot.

TL;DR: This study rationalizes the 2D end-to-end contact concept to improve the sensitivity of the existing sensors and has great potential to be used in a wide variety of polymer based sensors.

Abstract: This review is focused on carbon nanotube (CNT)-elastomeric polymer nanocomposites, which have attracted industrial and academic interest over the years due to their enhanced properties. Major factors notably CNT type, surface modification, dispersion of CNT, and processing techniques that affect the physical properties of CNT-elastomeric polymer nanocomposites are reviewed, and several key physical properties, including tensile, electrical, and thermal properties, were also included in this review. Some of the key challenges that undermine the effectiveness of CNTs and their composites with elastomeric polymers, and the potential applications of CNT-elastomeric composites are also captured.

TL;DR: In this article, a 3D printed molds which were developed using acrylonitrile thermoplastic polymer as the filament were used to develop the electrodes and substrate of the sensor patches respectively.

TL;DR: Water-stimulated enhanced catalytic activity results in massive growth of superdense and vertically aligned nanotube forests with heights up to 2.5 millimeters that can be easily separated from the catalysts, providing nanotubes material with carbon purity above 99.98%.

TL;DR: This dense carbon-nanotube material is advantageous for numerous applications, and here it is demonstrated its use as flexible heaters as well as supercapacitor electrodes for compact energy-storage devices.

TL;DR: The manufacture of printable elastic conductors comprising single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) uniformly dispersed in a fluorinated rubber is described, which is constructed a rubber-like stretchable active-matrix display comprising integrated printed elastic conductor, organic transistors and organic light-emitting diodes.

TL;DR: A simple approach to high-performance, stretchable, and foldable integrated circuits that integrate inorganic electronic materials, including aligned arrays of nanoribbons of single crystalline silicon, with ultrathin plastic and elastomeric substrates.