Design of a Highly Sensitive Reduced Graphene Oxide/Graphene Oxide@Cellulose Acetate/Thermoplastic Polyurethane Flexible Sensor

Abstract

As a substitute for rigid sensors, flexible sensing materials have been greatly developed in recent years, but maintaining the stability of conductive fillers and the stability of micro-strain sensing is still a major challenge. In this experiment, we innovatively prepared a polyurethane-based cellulose acetate composite membrane (CA/TPU) with abundant mesopores through electrospinning. Then, we reduced graphene oxide (rGO)—as a conductive filler—and graphene oxide (GO)—as an insulating layer—which were successively and firmly anchored on the CA/TPU nanofiber membrane with the ultrasonic impregnation method, to obtain an rGO/GO@CA/TPU sensor with a GF of 3.006 under a very small strain of 0.5%. The flexibility of the film and its high sensitivity under extremely low strains enables the detection of subtle human motions (such as finger bending, joint motion, etc.), making it suitable for potential application in wearable electronic devices.