A Stretchable Kirigami-Inspired Self-Powered Electroactive Sensor for Tensile Strain and Torsion Sensing

Electroactive polymer has a great potential to be employed for making a self-powered sensor due to the ionic movement of the mobile cation that exists in the polymer structure itself. However, applying an electroactive-based sensor as wearable gadget can be challenging due to its limited detection range and nonconformity. Inspired by the Kirigami structure, herein, it has been demonstrated that a self-powered electroactive-based sensor with improved conformality. It has been found that the Kirigami structure can enhance the sensor sensitivity significantly. The sensor exhibited high sensitivity to a uniaxial strain deformation with more than 300% sensitivity and a broad sensing range of up to 80% strain. In addition to being able to detect the uniaxial strain, the Kirigami-patterned sensor also has good torsion and mixed torsion-strain dependent properties, making it a good multifunctional sensor. As a proof-of-concept demonstration for applications in monitoring human activities, it has been successfully demonstrated that the proposed Kirigami-patterned sensor is able to monitor wrist movements and respiration rate. Notably, this Kirigami-patterned electroactive-based sensor has significantly broadened the application of electroactive polymer on advanced wearable electronics.