Highly Sensitive, Durable, and Multifunctional Sensor Inspired by a Spider

Abstract

Sensitivity, durability, and multifunction are the essential requirements for a high-performance wearable sensor. Here, we report a novel multifunctional sensor with high sensitivity and durability by using a buckled spider silk-like single-walled carbon nanotubes (SSL-SWNTs) film as the conducting network and a crack-shaped Au film as the sensitive transducer. Its high sensitivity is inspired by the crack-shaped structure of the spider's slit organs, while the high durability is inspired by the mechanical robustness of the spider silk. Similar to the spider's slit organs that can detect slight vibrations, our sensor also exhibits a high sensitivity especially to tiny strain. The proposed quantum tunneling model is consistent with experimental data. In addition, this sensor also responds sensitively to temperature with the sensitivity of 1.2%/°C. Because of the hierarchical structure like spider silk, this sensor possesses combined superiority of fast response (<60 ms) and high durability (>10 000 cycles). We also fabricate a wearable device for monitoring various human physiological signals. It is expect that this high-performance sensor will have wide potential applications in intelligent devices, fatigue detection, body monitoring, and human-machine interfacing.