High conductive graphene assembled films with porous micro-structure for freestanding and ultra-low power strain sensors

Zhe Wang; Peng Li; Rongguo Song; Wei Qian; Huang Zhou; Qianlong Wang; Yong Wang; Xianci Zeng; Lin Ren; Shilin Yan; Shichun Mu; Daping He

doi:10.1016/j.scib.2020.05.002

High conductive graphene assembled films with porous micro-structure for freestanding and ultra-low power strain sensors

Sci Bull (Beijing). 2020 Aug 30;65(16):1363-1370. doi: 10.1016/j.scib.2020.05.002. Epub 2020 May 5.

Authors

Zhe Wang¹, Peng Li², Rongguo Song², Wei Qian², Huang Zhou³, Qianlong Wang², Yong Wang³, Xianci Zeng², Lin Ren⁴, Shilin Yan⁵, Shichun Mu³, Daping He⁶

Affiliations

¹ Hubei Engineering Research Center of RF-Microwave Technology and Application, School of Science, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China; Hubei Key Laboratory of Theory and Application of Advanced Materials Mechanics, School of Science, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China.
² Hubei Engineering Research Center of RF-Microwave Technology and Application, School of Science, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China.
⁴ Hubei Engineering Research Center of RF-Microwave Technology and Application, School of Science, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China. Electronic address: rlin@whut.edu.cn.
⁵ Hubei Key Laboratory of Theory and Application of Advanced Materials Mechanics, School of Science, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China.
⁶ Hubei Engineering Research Center of RF-Microwave Technology and Application, School of Science, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China; State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China. Electronic address: hedaping@whut.edu.cn.

PMID: 36659215
DOI: 10.1016/j.scib.2020.05.002

Abstract

Graphene emerges as an ideal material for constructing high-performance strain sensors, due to its superior mechanical property and high conductivity. However, in the process of assembling graphene into macroscopic materials, its conductivity decreases significantly. Also, tedious fabrication process hinders the application of graphene-based strain sensors. In this work, we report a freestanding graphene assembled film (GAF) with high conductivity ((2.32 ± 0.08) × 10⁵ S m^-1). For the sensitive materials of strain sensors, it is higher than most of reported carbon nanotube and graphene materials. These advantages enable the GAF to be an ultra-low power consumption strain sensor for detecting airflow and vocal vibrations. The resistance of the GAF remains unchanged with increasing temperature (20-100 ℃), exhibiting a good thermal stability. Also, the GAF can be used as a strain sensor directly without any flexible substrates, which greatly simplifies the fabrication process in comparison with most reported strain sensors. Additionally, the GAF used as a pressure sensor with only ~4.7 μW power is investigated. This work provides a new direction for the preparation of advanced sensors with ultra-low power consumption, and the development of flexible and energy-saving electronic devices.

Keywords: Freestanding; Graphene assembled film; High conductivity; Strain sensor; Ultra-low power consumption.