Flexible and stretchable sensors composited by carbon fiber/silver nanopowders and PDMS for strain detection

Flexible and stretchable electronic sensors can realize real-time monitoring of dynamic deformation through resistance strain response. In this paper, the composite optimization of multi-dimensional hybrid conductive material and flexible substrate is studied, and the strain sensor with tensile and flexible characteristics is prepared. In order to obtain good conductivity, conductive materials are mainly selected from carbon and metal materials. Herein, a facile and novel method is developed to improve the conductivity of composites by doping silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and carbon fibers (CFs) into polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) matrix to form a uniform hybrid CFs/AgNPs/PDMS conductive film. The CFs/AgNPs/PDMS conductive films were used as middle layers for PDMS-CFs/AgNPs/PDMS-PDMS sandwich-structured flexible conductors. The flexible conductors show characteristics of well mechanical performances and electro-mechanical stability. The resistance variations of flexible conductors are very sensitive to the detection of stretching tests. This demonstrates that the as-produced sandwich structure flexible conductors could be used as advanced composite materials and wearable electronics for human motion monitoring systems.