Highly Stretchable, Sensitive, and Transparent Strain Sensors with a Controllable In-Plane Mesh Structure

Highly stretchable and transparent strain sensors integrated in-plane meshed structure with silver nanowire conductive networks are rationally designed and prepared by the ultrafast laser cutting technique and facile drop-coating process, which exhibit great promise for efficient large-scale production. The in-plane meshed structure and low-content conductive network enable the sensor to achieve outstanding sensing performance and optical transparency based on simple fabricating processes and simplified components. More impressively, finite element method simulation is used to analyze and predict the influence of multiple structures on properties for selecting optimal meshed structures. Consequently, the strain sensor with optimal meshed structures exhibits high sensitivity in a wide working strain range (gauge factor of 846 at 150% tensile strain), good optical transparency of 88.3%, slight hysteresis, and long-term durability under large-strain cycles. Because of these superior performances, this in-plane mesh-structured strain sensor has great potential as candidates for wearable electronics, especially in skin-mountable devices detecting both subtle physiological signals and large motion information.