Electrical engineering

Geology

Fabrication

Pathology

Nanotechnology

Pure mathematics

Coating

Mathematics

Biology

Suspension (topology)

Oceanography

Engineering

Environmentally friendly

Natural rubber

Composite material

Carboxymethyl cellulose

Ecology

Metallurgy

Materials science

Alternative medicine

Gauge factor

Rubbing

Substrate (aquarium)

Degradation (telecommunications)

Layer (electronics)

Computer science

Carbon black

Sodium

Homotopy

Resistive touchscreen

Medicine

Telecommunications

ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering

It is a challenge to fabricate low-cost and flexible electronic devices with degradable materials. In this work, a flexible and degradable strain sensor was fabricated on a paper substrate by dip-coating in an aqueous suspension of carbon black (CB) and carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC). The composition of CB and CMC in the suspension was first studied for producing a uniform conducting layer on the paper. Then the strain sensor was obtained by assembling the coated paper and wires with silver paste. The sensor exhibits gauge factor of 4.3 and responsive time of approximately 240 ms, demonstrating the capability of monitoring various human motions with high stability >1000 cycles. The microgaps between CB particles and cracks on the surface of the CB layer can account for this resistive-type sensitivity. The degradation test shows that the sensor can be degraded soon under gentle rubbing in wet state, implying it is an environmentally friendly "green" electronic device. Furthermore, the cost of the sensor is quite low (<$0.001/sensor) due to the cheap raw materials used, which provides an opportunity for its future utilization in various intelligent systems.

Flexible and Degradable Paper-Based Strain Sensor with Low Cost