We report on the facile fabrication of a stretchable array of highly sensitive pressure sensors. The proposed pressure sensor consists of the top layer of Au-deposited polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) micropillars and the bottom layer of conductive polyaniline nanofibers on a polyethylene terephthalate substrate. The sensors are operated by the changes in contact resistance between Au-coated micropillars and polyaniline according to the varying pressure. The fabricated pressure sensor exhibits a sensitivity of 2.0 kPa(-1) in the pressure range below 0.22 kPa, a low detection limit of 15 Pa, a fast response time of 50 ms, and high stability over 10000 cycles of pressure loading/unloading with a low operating voltage of 1.0 V. The sensor is also capable of noninvasively detecting human-pulse waveforms from carotid and radial artery. A 5 × 5 array of the pressure sensors on the deformable substrate, which consists of PDMS islands for sensors and the mixed thin film of PDMS and Ecoflex with embedded liquid metal interconnections, shows stable sensing of pressure under biaxial stretching by 15%. The strain distribution obtained by the finite element method confirms that the maximum strain applied to the pressure sensor in the strain-suppressed region is less than 0.04% under a 15% biaxial strain of the unit module. This work demonstrates the potential application of our proposed stretchable pressure sensor array for wearable and artificial electronic skin devices.

A stretchable multisensor system is successfully demonstrated with an integrated energy-storage device, an array of microsupercapacitors that can be repeatedly charged via a wireless radio-frequency power receiver on the same stretchable polymer substrate. The integrated devices are interconnected by a liquid-metal interconnection and operate stably without noticeable performance degradation under strain due to the skin attachment, and a uniaxial strain up to 50%.

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Cement-based sensors with hybrid conductive fillers using both carbon fibers (CFs) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were experimentally investigated in this study. The self-sensing capacities of cement-based composites with only CFs or MWCNTs were found based on preliminary tests. The results showed that the percolation thresholds of CFs and MWCNTs were 0.5–1.0 vol.% and 1.0 vol.%, respectively. Based on these results, the feasibility of self-sensing composites with four different amounts of CFs and MWCNTs was considered under cyclic compression loads. When the amount of incorporated CFs increased and the amount of incorporated MWCNTs decreased, the self-sensing capacity of the composites was reduced. It was concluded that cement-based composites containing both 0.1 vol.% CFs and 0.5 vol.% MWCNTs could be an alternative to cement-based composites with 1.0 vol.% MWCNTs in order to achieve equivalent self-sensing performance at half the price. The gauge factor (GF) for that composite was 160.3 with an R-square of 0.9274 in loading stages I and II, which was similar to the GF of 166.6 for the composite with 1.0 vol.% MWCNTs.

This study investigates the effect of nanomaterials on the piezoresistive sensing capacity of cement-based composites. Three different nanomaterials—multi-walled carbon nanotubes, graphite nanofibers, and graphene oxide—were considered along with a plain mortar, and a cyclic compressive test was performed. Based on a preliminary test, the optimum flowability was determined to be 150 mm in terms of fiber dispersion. The electrical resistivity of the composites substantially decreased by incorporating 1 wt% multi-walled carbon nanotubes, but only slightly decreased by including 1 wt% graphite nanofibers and graphene oxide. This indicates that the use of multi-walled carbon nanotubes is most effective in improving the conductivity of the composites compared to the use of graphite nanofibers and graphene oxide. The fractional change in resistivity of the composites with nanomaterials exhibited similar behavior to that of the cyclic compressive load, but partial reversibility in fractional change in resistivity was obtained beyond 60% of the peak load. A linear relationship between the fractional change in resistivity and cyclic compression strain (up to 1500 με) was observed in the composites with multi-walled carbon nanotubes, and the gauge factor was found to be 166.6. It is concluded that cement-based composites with 1 wt% multi-walled carbon nanotubes can be used as piezoresistive sensors for monitoring the stress/strain generated in concrete structures.