Design of a highly flexible and sensitive multi-functional polymeric sensor incorporating CNTs and carbonyl iron powder

Highly flexible, stretchable, and sensitive sensors have attracted much attention due to their wide range of potential applications in wearable electronics for monitoring human and robotic motions. Herein, we demonstrate the applicability of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and carbonyl iron powder (CIP)-incorporated polymeric composite as a multi-functional sensor. The fabrication details, electromechanical sensing performance capabilities, and the applicability of the proposed multi-functional sensor to, for instance, healthcare devices, vibration sensors, and magneto-meters, is reported. The fabricated sensor showed high flexibility (100%), good resistance change outcomes (160%), and repeatability (R² > 0.98) during cyclic stretching tests, as well as excellent responses against different human motions. In addition, the responses of the fabricated sensor against three different vibrational frequencies and a magnetic field were also investigated to explore its applicability as a vibro-meter and a magneto-meter, respectively. The test results showed high resistance change and stability under each condition. Thus, it can be concluded that the CNTs and CIP-embedded multi-functional polymeric sensor is highly applicable for use in healthcare devices for monitoring human motions and in vibration sensors and magneto-meters.