Metal Mesh as a Transparent Omnidirectional Strain Sensor

Abstract

Abstract Thin metal films can be engineered to fabricate strain sensors by conquering their stiffness using wavy, buckle, or wrinkle topography. However, these structures usually operate in uniaxial or biaxial stretching directions, limiting their application in the omnidirectional model. Here a strain sensor is constructed by using metal mesh with honeycomb lattices and multiple domains as the sensitive unit, which simultaneously provides good stretchability and direction independence. Besides, the metal mesh structure makes it possible to obtain a transparent sensor with a sheet resistance of 26 Ω sq −1 at a transmittance of 79%. The sensor exhibits a highly sensitive resistance change with tension strain, demonstrated by quick response when monitoring the finger and muscle motion. The sensor also shows promising potential application in detecting periodic oscillation with selected frequency and even complex mechanical oscillation like glass vibration.