Scalable fabrication of high-performance and flexible graphene strain sensors

TLDR

Graphene strain sensors show promise for detecting human motion, but limited growth and patterning techniques hinder their widespread use. The study proposes wafer‑scale, high‑performance flexible graphene strain sensors fabricated in a single‑step laser scribing process. The sensors are fabricated by laser‑scribing graphene oxide films on a Light‑Scribe DVD burner, producing wafer‑scale flexible graphene micro‑ribbons that serve as strain sensors. The sensors achieve a gauge factor of 0.11 for a 10 mm × 10 mm square and up to 9.49 for 20 µm micro‑ribbons, enabling high‑GF low‑strain or low‑GF high‑deformation applications and suggesting broad use in medical, bio‑sensing, and artificial‑skin technologies.

Abstract

Graphene strain sensors have promising prospects of applications in detecting human motion. However, the shortage of graphene growth and patterning techniques has become a challenging issue hindering the application of graphene strain sensors. Therefore, we propose wafer-scale flexible strain sensors with high-performance, which can be fabricated in one-step laser scribing. The graphene films could be obtained by directly reducing graphene oxide film in a Light-Scribe DVD burner. The gauge factor (GF) of the graphene strain sensor (10 mm × 10 mm square) is 0.11. In order to enhance the GF further, graphene micro-ribbons (20 μm width, 0.6 mm long) has been used as strain sensors, of which the GF is up to 9.49. The devices may conform to various application requirements, such as high GF for low-strain applications and low GF for high deformation applications. The work indicates that laser scribed flexible graphene strain sensors could be widely used in medical-sensing, bio-sensing, artificial skin and many other areas.