Waterproof Flexible Polymer-Functionalized Graphene-Based Piezoresistive Strain Sensor for Structural Health Monitoring and Wearable Devices
Vetrivel Sankar, Ashwin Nambi, Vivek Nagendra Bhat, Debadatta Sethy, Krishnan Balasubramaniam, Sumitesh Das, Mriganshu Guha, Sundara Ramaprabhu
Abstract
, which is two orders of magnitude higher than the PVDF/HEG-based strain sensor. Besides, near the percolation region, the PVDF/PSS-HEG shows a maximum gauge factor of 10, which is about two times higher than the PVDF/HEG-based flexible strain sensor and 5-fold higher than the commercially available metallic strain gauge. The enhancement in the gauge factor is due to the stable dispersion of PSS-HEG in the PVDF matrix and electron conjugation caused by the adherence of negatively charged sulfonate functional groups on the HEG. The developed waterproof flexible strain sensor is demonstrated using portable wireless interfacing device for various applications. This work shows that the waterproof flexible PVDF/PSS-HEG-based strain sensor can be a potential alternative to the commercially available metallic strain gauge.