Metallic sandwiched-aerogel hybrids enabling flexible and stretchable intelligent sensor

Hongjian Zhang, Wenqi Han, Kui Xu, Yu Zhang, Yufei Lu, Zhentao Nie, Yuhang Du, Jixin Zhu, Wei Huang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

110 Scopus citations

Abstract

Flexible strain sensors have been widely investigated with their rapid development in human-machine interfaces, soft robots, and medical care monitoring. Here, we report a new in situ catalytic strategy toward the fabrication of metallic aerogel hybrids, which are composed of vanadium nitride (VN) nanosheets decorated with well-defined vertically aligned carbon nanotube arrays (VN/CNTs) for the first time. In this architecture, the two-dimensional VN nanosheets as the main bone structure are favorable for the flexible devices due to their excellent structural compatibility during the repetitive deforming process. In addition, the sandwiched aerogel hybrids form highly conductive 3D network, affording outstanding sensitivity for the strain-responsive behaviors. Further, the VN/CNTs-based flexible strain sensors are successfully fabricated, showing a high gauge factor of 386 within a small strain of 10%, fast response, and extraordinary durability. The monitoring of physical signals and an actual real-time human-machine controlling system based on the sensors are also presented.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3449-3458
Number of pages10
JournalNano Letters
Volume20
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - 13 May 2020
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • carbon nanotube
  • flexible strain sensor
  • human-machine interaction
  • signal monitoring
  • vanadium nitride

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