A Bi‐Sheath Fiber Sensor for Giant Tensile and Torsional Displacements

• Published in: Advanced functional materials 2017-09, Vol.27 (35), p.n/a
• Main Authors: Wang, Run, Jiang, Nan, Su, Jian, Yin, Qu, Zhang, Yue, Liu, Zhongsheng, Lin, Haibao, Moura, Francisco A., Yuan, Ningyi, Roth, Siegmar, Rome, Richard S., Ovalle‐Robles, Raquel, Inoue, Kanzan, Yin, Shougen, Fang, Shaoli, Wang, Weichao, Ding, Jianning, Shi, Linqi, Baughman, Ray H., Liu, Zunfeng
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: buckle structures; carbon nanotubes; High resolution; Interlayers; Linearity; Materials science; Response time; Rubber; self‐assembly; Sensors; strain sensors; torsional sensors
• ISSN: 1616-301X; 1616-3028
• DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201702134

Current research about resistive sensors is rarely focusing on improving the strain range and linearity of resistance–strain dependence. In this paper, a bi‐sheath buckled structure is designed containing buckled carbon nanotube sheets and buckled rubber on rubber fiber. Strain decrease results in increasing buckle contact by the rubber interlayer and a large decrease in resistance. The resulting strain sensor can be reversibly stretched to 600%, undergoing a linear resistance increase as large as 102% for 0–200% strain and 160% for 200–600% strain. This strain sensor shows high linearity, fast response time, high resolution, excellent stability, and almost no hysteresis. Novel bi‐sheath strain sensors for tensile and torsional strain are fabricated by hierarchically buckling an aligned carbon nanotube sheath on a buckled elastomer‐coated rubber fiber. The contact area between adjacent nanotube buckles decreases with increasing stretch to provide 160% increase in resistance during 600% sensor elongation, which is fast in response, low in hysteresis, and high in cycle life.