Preparation and properties of CNTs/PDMS resistance strain sensor based on porous structure

Abstract A porous structure serves as an effective means to enhance the performance of flexible sensors, owing to its remarkable deformability. In this paper, we use droplet microfluidics to prepare micrometre-scale uniform-sized porous structures within polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) films, and ultrasonic oscillation to attach nanoscale carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to the films to form conductive paths, from which we obtain flexible resistive strain sensors. The porous structure exacerbated the deformation of the separated conductive network when tension strain was applied. The results show that the sensor has the properties of sensitivity factor (GF of 44.25-512.48), operating range (50%), response time (320ms), and durability (1500 cycles), as well as the ability to detect torsion angles and different tensile strains. The sensor can not only monitor subtle physiological signals and large-scale joint movement but also monitor the gripping posture of soft body manipulators, which has an extensive application potential in the fields of human motion detection, object detection and wearable electronic devices.