Low-cost Flexible Strain Sensor Based on Thick CVD Graphene

Flexible strain sensors, as the core member of the family of smart electronic devices, along with reasonable sensing range and sensitivity plus low cost, have rose a huge consumer market and also immense interests in fundamental studies and technological applications, especially in the field of biomimetic robots movement detection and human health condition monitoring. In this paper, we propose a new flexible strain sensor based on thick CVD graphene film and its low-cost fabrication strategy by using the commercial adhesive tape as flexible substrate. The tensile tests in a strain range of similar to 30% were implemented, and a gage factor of 30 was achieved under high strain condition. The optical microscopic observation with different strains showed the evolution of cracks in graphene film. Together with commonly used platelet overlap theory and percolation network theory for sensor resistance modeling, we established an overlap destructive resistance model to analyze the sensing mechanism of our devices, which fitted the experimental data very well. The finding of difference of fitting parameters in small and large strain ranges revealed the multiple stage feature of graphene crack evolution. The resistance fallback phenomenon due to the viscoelasticity of flexible substrate was analyzed. Our flexible strain sensor with low cost and simple fabrication process exhibits great potential for commercial applications.