Sensing mechanism of a flexible strain sensor developed directly using electrospun composite nanofiber yarn with ternary carbon nanomaterials

Recently, various strain-sensing yarns have been developed without ideal stitchability. Herein, we used spherical carbon black particles (CBs), linear carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and lamellar graphene flakes (GRs) as conductive nanofillers to construct multi-element conductive networks inside a thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) matrix. First, a highly stretchable and conductive multidimensional carbon-based nanomaterial/TPU composite nanofiber yarn was fabricated using electrospinning, which could be used as a flexible strain sensor without post-processing. Accordingly, the effects of nanomaterials’ dimensionality and synergy on yarns’ conductivity, mechanical properties, and strain sensing performances were explored. The yarn containing multiple networks formed by CB/CNT/GR ternary hybrid networks, CNT and GR auxiliary networks exhibited the best performances. Subsequently, the structural evolution of the ternary conductive network under stretching was revealed to further analyze the sensing mechanism. Finally, the yarn endowed a medicated plaster with an intelligent function to detect motions in the rehabilitation of joint pain by simple sewing.