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Graphene woven fabrics for sensing application

(Nanowerk News) Graphene has attracted extensive attention because of its excellent electrical properties, outstanding thermal conductivity, high transparency, ultrathin thickness, and large specific area, and naturally, it has been used as a sensing material.
In ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces ("Simultaneous High Sensitivity Sensing of Temperature and Humidity with Graphene Woven Fabrics"), researchers now report a flexible temperature and humidity sensor (FTHS) from graphene woven fabrics (GWFs) prepared by chemical vapor deposition (CVD).
The sensor was prepared through an environmentally friendly layer-by-layer assembly process. Compared with the common graphene films produced by CVD, the GWF was composed of criss-crossed interlacing graphene micrometer ribbons and had rectangular holes, demonstrating ultra-sensitivity with a gauge factor of 500 to deformation within 2%.
fabricating a flexible temperature and humidity sensor with graphen woven fabrics
(a) Schematic diagram of assembly steps of the FTHS. Inset: photograph of as-prepared FTHS. (b) Mechanism for temperature sensing. (c) Mechanism for humidity sensing. (© ACS) (click on image to enlarge)
The researchers found that the substrate, the length-width ratio of GWF, and the time of the oxygen plasma treatment greatly influenced the sensitivity of the temperature-sensing part.
"Simulation results and some reported devices made by GWF have proved the special macrostructure and microstructure of GWF, which promise it unique properties and diversified potential applications," the authors conclude their report. "With a special design, we used GWFs to produce a flexible and bifunctional sensor. The FTHS showed high sensitivity in temperature sensing, good humidity sensing performance, and little mutual interference."
Michael Berger By – Michael is author of three books by the Royal Society of Chemistry:
Nano-Society: Pushing the Boundaries of Technology,
Nanotechnology: The Future is Tiny, and
Nanoengineering: The Skills and Tools Making Technology Invisible
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