A highly sensitive strain sensor with a sandwich structure composed of two silver nanoparticles layers and one silver nanowires layer for human motion detection

The fabrication of strain sensors with high sensitivity, large sensing range and excellent stability is highly desirable because of their promising applications in human motion detection, human-machine interface and electric skin, etc. Herein, by introducing a highly conductive silver nanowire (AgNW) layer between two serried silver nanoparticle (AgNP) layers, forming a sandwich structure, a strain sensor with high sensitivity (a large gauge factor of 2.8 × 10⁵), large sensing range (up to 80% strain) and excellent stability (over 1000 cycles) can be achieved. A combination of experimental and mechanism studies shows that the high performance of the obtained strain sensor is ascribed to the synergy of the highly conductive AgNW layer, astatic AgNP layers and the presence of large cracks in stretching. As a proof-of-concept application, the obtained strain sensor can be used for highly effective human motion detection ranging from large scale motions, i.e. kneel bending and wrist flexion, to subtle scale motions, i.e. pulse and swallowing. (paper)