A hierarchically structured graphene foam and its potential as a large-scale strain-gauge sensor

Abstract

A hierarchically structured thermal-reduced graphene (ReG) foam with 0.5 S cm⁻¹ electrical conductivity is fabricated from a well-dispersed graphene oxide suspension via a directional freezing method followed by high-temperature thermal treatment. The as-prepared three-dimensional ReG foam has an ordered macroporous honeycomb-like structure with straight and parallel voids in the range of 30 μm to 75 μm separated by cell walls of several tens of nanometers thick. Despite its ultra-low density, the ReG foam has an excellent compression recovery along its in-plane direction. This property of the ReG foam can be attributed to its hierarchically porous structure, as demonstrated by the compression test. The excellent compression recovery and high conductivity provide the ReG foam with exceptional piezoresistive capabilities. The electrical resistance of the ReG foam shows a linearly decreasing trend with compressive strain increments of up to 60%, which cannot be observed in conventional rigid material-based sensors and carbon nanotube-based polymer sensors. Such intriguing linear strain-responsive behavior, along with the fast response time and high thermal stability, makes the ReG foam a promising candidate for strain sensing. We demonstrated that it could be used as a wearable device for real-time monitoring of human health.