近期，本课题组张敏老师和张子璇同学分别以通讯作者和第一作者在材料科学领域国际知名期刊Carbon（SCI一区，2022年IF=11.307）上发表了题为“Tunable stretchable strain sensors enabled by patterned Ecoflex-vertical aligned carbon nanotube arrays and pre-stretching transfer”的研究成果。
灵敏度和检测范围是衡量可拉伸应变传感器性能的主要参数。但二者对应变传感器的导电材料分布密度有着相对矛盾的需求，通过同时改进两参数以实现兼具高灵敏度和宽检测范围的设备仍具有挑战性。同时，不同的应用场景，对应变传感器的特定参数的要求是不同的，若设备性能可进行简单调节以满足监测需求，则无需过度追求高参数。因此，实现一种性能易于调节的可拉伸传感器的设计是非常有价值和意义的。
本研究通过结合图案化的竖直碳纳米管阵列的设计以及预拉伸转移方法，提出了一种将碳纳米管阵列高度、图案化设计，和预拉伸程度作为性能控制因素的柔性应力传感器制备方法，实现了性能可调节的一系列传感器，器件展现出了高度稳定性和实用性，以及在运动健康监测、人机交互，及电子皮肤等领域的应用前景。
Stretchable strain sensors have drawn tremendous attention due to their wide applications in various emerging scenarios. Various application scenarios have different performance requirements for the sensors, mainly including sensitivity and sensing range. It is necessary but challenging to customize the design to achieve the various required performance. Here, we propose a method to easily modulate stretchable strain sensors by patterning the hybrid film, which infiltrates Ecoflex into the patterned vertical aligned carbon nanotube (VACNT) arrays and combining the pre-stretching transfer. The pre-stretching level of the Ecoflex substrate, the pattern design, and the height of the VACNT arrays are the main factors to modulate the sensitivity and sensing range of the sensors. The typical sensors show tunable sensitivity (from 0.6 to 417.7) and sensing range (from 0-40% to 0–150%), high mechanical repeatability, as well as durability (>10000 operation cycles). The sensors are applied to detect human body motion and recognize speech and emotional signals. These show the application potentials of the sensors in movement monitoring, human-machine interfaces, and electronic skins.
文章链接：
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0008622322004638
