Highly breathable and stretchable strain sensors with insensitive response to pressure and bending

Abstract

Wearable tensile strain sensors have aroused substantial attention on account of their exciting applications in rebuilding tactile inputs of human and intelligent robots. Conventional such devices, however, face the dilemma of both sensitive response to pressure and bending stimulations, and poor breathability for wearing comfort. In this paper, a breathable, pressure and bending insensitive strain sensor is reported, which presents fascinating properties including high sensitivity and remarkable linearity (gauge factor of 49.5 in strain 0–100%, R2 = 99.5%), wide sensing range (up to 200%), as well as superior permeability to moisture, air, and water vapor. On the other hand, it exhibits negligible response to wide-range pressure (0–100 kPa) and bending (0–75%) inputs. This work provides a new route for achieving wearing comfortable, high-performance, and anti-jamming strain sensors.