Wearable Wide-Range Strain Sensors Based on Ionic Liquids and Monitoring of Human Activities

Sensors (Basel). 2017 Nov 14;17(11):2621. doi: 10.3390/s17112621.

Abstract

Wearable sensors for detection of human activities have encouraged the development of highly elastic sensors. In particular, to capture subtle and large-scale body motion, stretchable and wide-range strain sensors are highly desired, but still a challenge. Herein, a highly stretchable and transparent stain sensor based on ionic liquids and elastic polymer has been developed. The as-obtained sensor exhibits impressive stretchability with wide-range strain (from 0.1% to 400%), good bending properties and high sensitivity, whose gauge factor can reach 7.9. Importantly, the sensors show excellent biological compatibility and succeed in monitoring the diverse human activities ranging from the complex large-scale multidimensional motions to subtle signals, including wrist, finger and elbow joint bending, finger touch, breath, speech, swallow behavior and pulse wave.

Keywords: ionic liquids; strain sensor; wearable; wide-range.

MeSH terms

  • Human Activities
  • Humans
  • Ionic Liquids
  • Motion
  • Polymers
  • Wearable Electronic Devices*

Substances

  • Ionic Liquids
  • Polymers