Flexible Zinc Oxide Nanowire Array/Graphene Nanohybrid for High-Sensitivity Strain Detection

[Image: see text] A fully flexible strain sensor consisting of vertically aligned ZnO nanowires on graphene transferred on polyethylene terephthalate with prefabricated Au/Ti electrodes (ZnO-VANWs/Gr)/PET) has been obtained. The ZnO-VANWs were grown in solution using a seedless hydrothermal process and are single-crystalline of (0001) orientation that provides optimal piezoelectric gating on graphene when deformed mechanically. The change of the graphene channel conductance under such a piezoelectric gating through transduction of the mechanical deformation on the ZnO-VANWs/Gr was used to detect the strain induced by the deformation. Under applied normal forces of 0.30, 0.50, and 0.70 N in a dynamic manner, the ZnO-VANWs/Gr/PET strain sensors exhibited a high response and response times of ∼0.20 s to both force on and off were achieved. Under mechanical bending curvatures of 0.18, 0.23, 0.37, and 0.45 cm(–1), high sensitivity of the gauge factors up to ∼248 and response times of 0.20 s/0.20 s (rise/fall) were achieved on the ZnO-VANWs/Gr/PET strain sensors. Moreover, the response changes polarity when the directions of bending alters between up and down, corresponding to the polarity change of the space charge on the ZnO-VANWs/Gr interface as a consequence of the compressive and tensile strains along the ZnO-VANWs. This result shows that the low-cost and scalable ZnO-VANWs/Gr/PET strain sensors are promising for applications in stress/strain monitoring, wearable electronics, and touch screens.