Mechanics of Stretchable and highly sensitive graphene-on-polymer strain sensors
Quanshui Zheng (Tsinghua University), Hongwei Zhu (Tsinghua University), Wen Wang (Tsinghua University)
Prager Medal Symposium in honor of George Weng: Micromechanics, Composites and Multifunctional Materials
Tue 9:00 - 10:30
MacMillan 117
In a recent work (Scientific Reports, 2012), we investigated graphene woven fabrics (GWFs) for strain sensing. Different than graphene films, GWFs undergo significant changes in their polycrystalline structures along with high-density crack formation and propagation mechanically deformed. We showed that the electrical resistance of GWFs increases exponentially with tensile strain with gauge factors of ~1k under 2~6% strains and ~1 million under higher strains that are the highest thus far reported, due to its woven mesh configuration and fracture behavior, making it an ideal structure for sensing tensile deformation by changes in strain. Here we study the main mechanism and establish a micromechanics model that predicts very well the observed behavior.