Retracted Article: 3D printed highly flexible strain sensor based on TPU–graphene composite for feedback from high speed robotic applications
Abstract
A novel, highly flexible and electrically resistive-type strain sensor with a special three-dimensional conductive network was 3D printed using a composite of conductive graphene pellets and flexible thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) pellets. The morphology of the TPU graphene filament was verified using Raman spectroscopy. The composite filament was well fused and constructed an excellent three-dimensional conductive network. The size of the 3D printed strain sensor was 2 × 1.5 cm (length × width) and the layer had a depth of 200 μm. The special hierarchical conductive network endowed the 3D printed strain sensor with a desirable combination of good stretchability and a high sensitivity (gauge factor (GF) of 11 in a strain of 10% and 80 in a strain of 100% in a reversible strain regime), good durability and stability (stretch/release test of 6000 cycles) and a rapid response speed. The mechanism of evolution for the residual resistance and residual strain of the 3D printed strain sensor under cyclic loading were investigated in detail. The strain sensor was embedded inside a 3D printed Polylactic acid (PLA) based finger hinge and the bending feedback was observed. The results demonstrate that our flexible strain sensor has the potential for wide ranging applications in soft actuators, feedback from high speed robotic applications and 3D printed wearable devices.
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