Ultra-sensitive and stretchable strain sensor based on piezoelectric polymeric nanofibers

Abstract

There have been increasing demands for stretchable and highly sensitive sensors for use in structural health monitoring, human motion capturing, sport performance monitoring and rehabilitation. Such high performance myoelectric sensors are also remarkably important in developing artificial limbs where a combination of robotic actuators and sensory systems are required to provide lifelike, affordable, functional and easy to use devices that can interact with the human body. Here, we present a highly stretchable, self-powered and ultra-sensitive strain sensor based on piezoelectric PVDF nanofibers. We demonstrate the performance of the proposed device in response to an oscillatory load at very low frequency (0.5Hz). We also examined the applicability of our strain sensor on human's motion recognition by fabricating a glove with two sensors mounted on the middle and index fingers.