Ramie Fabric Treated with Carboxymethylcellulose and Laser Engraved for Strain and Humidity Sensing

Abstract

Wearable fabric sensors have attracted enormous attention due to their huge potential in human health and activity monitoring, human–machine interaction and the Internet of Things (IoT). Among natural fabrics, bast fabric has the advantage of high strength, good resilience and excellent permeability. Laser engraving, as a high throughput, patternable and mask-free method, was demonstrated to fabricate fabric sensors. In this work, we developed a simplified, cost-effective and environmentally friendly method for engraving ramie fabric (a kind of bast fabric) directly by laser under an ambient atmosphere to prepare strain and humidity sensors. We used carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) to pretreat ramie fabric before laser engraving and gained laser-carbonized ramie fabrics (LCRF) with high conductivity (65 Ω sq−1) and good permeability. The strain and humidity sensors had high sensitivity and good flexibility, which can be used for human health and activity monitoring.