Review Paper

A review on graphene strain sensors based on fiber assemblies

Ting Wang1 · Zhaofeng Ouyang2 · Fei Wang1 · Yixin Liu1

Received: 28 October 2019 / Accepted: 30 March 2020

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

Abstract
With the development of wearable electronic devices, electronic-textiles have attracted more and more attentions due
to its widely applications in human movement monitoring, health and physical indicators monitoring (e.g. heartbeat,
pulse, body temperature, limb movements, and vocalization). As a vital part of electronic textiles, graphene strain sensors
that based on fiber assemblies (FGS) is of concern to the researchers due to its well integration of graphene with fibers
assemblies, which will inevitably promote the rapid development and widespread applications of next-generation wear-
able electronic devices. Fiber assemblies exhibit outstanding ability of structural retention and fatigue resistance during
wearing and washing, which can provide a large-area affiliated carrier and widespread service platform for the design
and application of electronic-textiles. And the graphene endows electronic-textiles with good electrical and mechani-
cal properties. Herein, the previous researches on fabrication, sensing mechanism, sensing performance indexes, and
application field of FGS are systematically summarized. Furthermore, the potential difficulties and future development
prospect of FGS are summarized and discussed. It is expected that this review is not only a summary of what has been
achieved, but also provide a guideline for future development.

Keywords E-textiles · Fiber-assemblies · Graphene · Strain sensor

1 Introduction transmit the change of human motion parameters, body

and health indexes through the form of electrical signals.
With the appearance of "Google Glasses", 2012 was called For example, the resistance of the sensing material could
"the first year of intelligent wearable devices." Intelligent be changed by strain during human movement [1], the
wearable devices had been widely recognized and focused change of capacitance of the sensing material could be
on smart terminal industry as the space for innovation in caused by human’ pulse or heartbeat [2]. There still remain
smart phones was gradually compressed and the market two problems, however, with sensors in current intelligent
increment was approaching saturation. The intelligent wearable devices. Firstly, the characteristic of rigidity of
wearable devices such as smart watches, smart glasses and sensing materials limit the sufficient and effective interac-
smart wristbands have been widely used now for moni- tion with curved surface of human body and leads to the
toring human movement, physical parameters, health distortion or inaccuracy of the collected electrical signals.
indicators. The intelligent wearable devices are generally Secondly, the sensing material does not have sufficient
composed of a set of various functional modules (e.g. dis- stretchability to meet the large strain requirements of the
play devices, microprocessors, sensors, batteries, and com- human body (strain range from 33 to 55%) [3]. Replace-
munication units). Among all of these, the sensors play an ment of rigid materials with flexible sensing materials is an
important role, because the sensors could respond and effective way to solve the above problems [4, 5].

* Yixin Liu, [email protected] | 1College of Textiles and Clothing, Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071, China. 2The Key Laboratory
of Advanced Textile Materials and Manufacturing Technology of Ministry of Education, College of Materials and Textiles, Zhejiang Sci-Tech
University, 928 Second Avenue, Xiasha Higher Education Park, Hangzhou 310018, China.

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Clothing, as one of the fiber assemblies, has been used as a substrate and growing graphene on the surface of
for thousands of years due to its properties of flexibility, fabric by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). the prepared
lightweight, stretchability, washability, and adaptability FGS with high sensitivity of GF value 151 at 4.5% strain can
to the strain requirement while wearing. Meanwhile, it be used for wireless musical instruments [23]. These stud-
can fully interact with the curved surface of human body ies also confirm that FGS has broad application prospects
enduringly and has certain comfortable performance. as electronic textiles.
Although these advantages of fiber assemblies can be Although FGS has been studied for many years and
used as a structural platform for wearable electronic some achievements have been made, some questions still
device, what should be emphasized is to develop sustain- need to be further explored, such as how to improve the
able flexible systems called "electronic-textiles" [3], which durability of FGS by improving the interfacial properties of
provide high carrier mobility (electrical conductivity), graphene and fiber-forming polymers, how to improve the
mechanical stability and environmental stability. In the linearity of sensing sensitivity by designing a suitable fiber
past few decades, a large number of attempts had been assemblies structure, how to reduce the response time
made to fabricate sensors suitable for “electronic-textiles” and recovery time of sensors by mastering the relation-
and two different methods of sensors had been devel- ship between viscoelastic characteristics of fiber polymer
oped. The one is that the sensor are fabricated by using and sensing hysteresis. Herein, the previous studies on FGS
conductive fibers which are made of conductive polymer, have been reviewed systematically. The fabrication process
such as metal, carbon, piezoelectric materials, or conven- of graphene and FGS, sensing mechanisms, performance
tional fibers whose surface covered by conductive materi- and applications of the FGS are reviewed and discussed. At
als, then processed into fiber assemblies structure [6, 7]. the same time, the existing challenges and the prospects
The other is that, the sensors are fabricated by using the for its future development are summarized.
ordinary fiber assemblies structure as a motherboard and
i MParting electronic functions on the surface of fabrics by
dip-coating, printing or filtration [8, 9]. No matter which of 2 Graphene preparation
the above fabrication is used, first of all, the electrical con-
ductivity of materials should be integrated with the fiber Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms densely arranged
assemblies’ structures (e.g. yarns [10], woven fabric [11], in a honeycomb lattice. The carbon–carbon bonds ­(sp2
knitting fabric [12], nonwoven fabric [13].) These electri- hybrid orbital) in graphene are about 0.142 nm in length.
cal conductive materials including organic polymers such It’s made up of benzene rings that have lost their hydrogen
as polyaniline (PANI) [14], polypyrrole (PPy) [15], poly3, atoms [24]. Graphene have four carbon allotropes: graphite,
4-ethylene dioxythiophene (PEDOT) [16], as well as some carbon nanotubes, and fullerenes [25]. Graphene has been
inorganic carbon-based materials such as carbon black widely used as nanofillers for strain sensors due to its good
(CB) [17], carbon nanotubes (CNT) [18], graphene (GR) [19]. mechanical and electrical property (stress of 130 GPa, con-
In recent years, graphene has attracted wide attention ductivity of 7200 S m) [26–30]. At present, there are three
due to its tra-high electronic mobility(15,000–200,000 main methods for graphene preparation: Chemical vapor
­cm2V−1 s−1) [20] and its excellent mechanical properties deposition (CVD) [31], Redox Process [32] and Liquid phase
(Young’s modulus of 1100 GPa and tensile strength of exfoliation (LPE) [33–35]. Among them, the redox method
130 GPa) [21]. To combine graphene with other fiber form- can also be regarded as a special way of LPE.
ing polymers to make fibers and then process into fiber
assemblies and to combine the graphene with off-the- 2.1 CVD method
shelf fibers assemblies motherboard are the two mainly
fabrications of graphene composite strain sensor based on CVD method is able to grow large-area, high-quality gra-
fiber assemblies (FGS) for “electronic textiles”. Ming Chao phene films on metal surfaces by gaseous carbon sources.
et al. reported a FGS based on skin–core structured fiber Metals, such as Ni, Fe, Co, Pt, and Cu, are both catalysts
by using ultrafine graphenes as the skin and silk fibers as and substrates for graphene growth. The process includes
the core by dry-meyer-rod-coating process, the FGS with three main stages: to diffuse the carbon on the metal film
sensitivity of Gauge Factor (GF) 4.5 at strain 15% can be at high temperature; to deposit carbon on the metal sur-
used to detect the human joint motions [22]. Xiaoting face while the decrease of carbon solubility during cool-
et al. using polyurethane yarns as substrate by coating ing; to form a graphene layer on the metal surface. The
graphene/poly vinyl alcohol as the conductive sheath, ideal way to synthesize graphene is to grow directly on the
the prepared FGS with the sensitivity of GF 28.6 at 50% surface of materials, such as fibers and fiber assemblies.
strain is potential to monitor the human movement [10]. Therefore, it is urgent to develop an effective way so that
Liu et al. using woven Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) fabric the graphene grown on the metal surface will not produce

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defects or degrade when transferred onto non-metallic exfoliated via sonication or mechanical force. Then the gra-
substrate surfaces. The most effective transfer method is as phene oxide (GO) must be chemically reduced to reduced
follows: firstly, polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) or polydi- graphene oxide (rGO) using hydrazine or thermal reduction.
methylsiloxane (PDMS) was used as a support layer under Although the redox method is relatively simple and is fea-
the metal layer where graphene could grow, and then the sible for large-scale production, electrical properties of the
metal layer was removed by using an etchant, then the rGO is degraded due to structural damage during the oxida-
graphene could transfer onto the surface of support layer. tion. Bo et al. utilized reduced graphene oxide (rGO) to make
If it is necessary the support layer could be removed by a gas-sensing sensors of which resistance value is ­104–105
solvents, at last the graphene was transferred to the final Ω sq−1 [32], Such a large resistance will affect the sensitivity
target substrates. Figure 1a,b,c shows the schematics of of the sensing and the transmission of sensing signals.
the process of transferring the graphene to PET substrates.
CVD method can obtain high quality graphene with few or 2.3 LPE method
even single layer. Bae et al. obtained single-layer graphene
sheets with resistance of 125 Ω sq−1 and light transmit- There are three steps of the LPE method: (i) Intercalation
tance of 97.4% (wavelength of 500 nm) by roll-to-roll trans- of Graphite with a chemical agent; (ii) Exfoliation of the
fer method [36]. However, the complicated process and intercalated graphite layers via sonication, (iii) Purification
high cost of CVD method limits its large scale production. of the exfoliated flakes from un-exfoliated flakes via ultra-
centrifugation. The LPE method also can be divided into
2.2 Redox method three types: chemical exfoliation (CE), sonication exfolia-
tion (SE) and electrochemical exfoliation (EE). The CE and
As shown in Fig. 1d, the graphite was oxidized by strong SE method are two different approaches, however, they
acids and oxidants, the oxidized groups were inserted often worked together. Graphene obtained from different
between the graphite layers, and the graphite layers were LPE method had different size of flake, as shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 1  a Schematics of the synthesis mechanism of CVD graphene on Cu foil. b The roll-to-roll transfer process of graphene to PET substrate.
c Optical image of graphene on a flexible PET substrate. d Schematic illustration of the Redox process of graphene flakes generated from
graphite [37]

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Fig. 2  AFM image of soluble flakes obtained by a sonication-assisted exfoliation-SE, b chemical exfoliation-CE and c electrochemical exfolia-
tion-EE, the insets show a zoom-in taken of the white square areas [35]

Fig. 3  Schematic of chemical exfoliation: chemical reagents intercalate graphite firstly, and then form a π-π conjugation effect with the car-
bon atoms of graphene to prevent re-aggregation of the layers, and assisted with ultrasonic treatment to exfoliate graphene with few layers

As shown in Fig. 3, CE is a simple method to prepare the into solvent with ultrasonic treatment. Some dipolar aprotic
graphene without structural defects caused by redox, its solvents (e.g. N,N′-dimethylformamide (DMF), N-methylpyr-
uses chemical reagents that can π-π conjugate with gra- rolidone (NMP), aqueous surfactant solution) are effective
phene to first intercalate the graphite and then exfoliate it graphene dispersants. After ultrasonic treatment, graphene
to the graphene. The graphene obtained by CE method can can form a relatively stable dispersant in the above solvent.
be dispersed in common solvents(e.g. ethanol, acetone.) Although the mechanism of ultrasonic dispersion is still not
to form graphene solution (inks) which can be easily com- clear, the graphene nanosheets with the size below 1 μm
bined with other polymer solvents by casting or filtration can be obtained. In addition, there are challenges in choos-
[38]. However, the graphene flakes obtained by CE are usu- ing a safe solvent that can reduce the number of graphene
ally with a relatively large size (< 10 μm) and the surface of sheets and increase production [39, 40]. Graphene obtained
the flakes are partially modified during the chemical sol- by EE method is more controllable and less destructive.
vent intercalation process, which cause some limitations As shown in Fig. 4, by adjusting the driving potential in
on processing composite materials [35]. The SE method is a suitable electrolyte, the graphite electrode can form a
the simplest and feasible method for large-scale produc- graphene intercalation compounds (GICs) by positive and
tion. Graphene can be obtained directly by putting graphite negative interphase intercalation, then exfoliated directly

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Fig. 4  Schematic of graphene

exfoliated by graphite anode.
In the water, graphite after
electrochemical treatment
(10–20 v) make a suspension
with colloids of chemically
modified graphene that
produced in imidazolyl ionic
liquids [41]

by solvolysis during electrochemical treatment or further had been done on the fabrication of the FGS. There are two
heat treatment to form graphene platelets [41]. Although major categories: one is to fabricate graphene fiber (GBF)
the size of graphene flakes can be adjusted (1–10 μm) by firstly, then to process it to fiber assemblies or to form gra-
the voltage of the electrode, the properties of graphene phene woven fabric (GWF) structure and to transfer it to
obtained by EE method are worse than CVD method and the surface of other elastic substrate; the other is to coat,
the large-scale production is still not achieved till now. print, dip the graphene solution with off-the-shelf fibers
In summary, CVD method is able to grow large-area and assemblies motherboard. Although the former has bet-
high-quality graphene films on metal surfaces by gaseous ter sensing performance, its complicated process (e.g. the
carbon sources. However, the complicated process and preparation of graphene by CVD method, graphene fib-
high cost of CVD method limits its large scale production. ers spinning process) and its low stretchability limited its
Although the redox method is relatively simple and is fea- development in application. While the latter one is simple
sible for large-scale production, electrical properties of and available to achieve large-scale production. However,
the rGO is degraded due to structural damage during the the relatively low sensing sensitivity, low durability and
oxidation. And the graphene obtained from different LPE mismatch of the interface between graphene and fibers
method had different size of flake, CE is a simple method had to be further improved.
to prepare the graphene without structural defects caused
by redox, but its graphene flakes are usually with a rela- 3.1 Preparation of the FGS from fiber to fiber
tively large size; SE is the simplest and feasible method for assemblies
large-scale production, and the graphene nanosheets with
the size below 1 μm can be obtained; Graphene obtained For the preparation of flexible strain sensors based on
by EE method is more controllable and less destructive, graphene fibers, graphene fibers or graphene composite
and the size of graphene flakes can be adjusted (1–10 μm). fibers with good electrical conductivity were first pre-
However, the properties of graphene obtained by EE pared and then further processed into fiber assemblies.
method are worse than CVD method and the large-scale Wet-spinning process is the main method to prepare the
production is still not achieved till now. graphene or graphene composite fiber, as shown in Fig. 5,
the well dispersed graphene solution with liquid crystal
state (LC) can be aligned along the axial direction by exter-
3 Preparation of FGS nal force intervention and eventually coagulated into a
fiber [42]. In the wet spinning process, the GO was first dis-
Considering the cost and quality of graphene, as well as persed in an aqueous solution to prepare GO slurry with a
the interface properties between graphene and other certain viscosity, and the slurry was sprayed from the spin-
fiber-forming polymers, in the past decade, many attempts neret through a wet spinning device, and then injected

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Fig. 5  Schematic of graphene oxide fiber formation. Spinning solution of graphene oxide with liquid crystal (LC) structure undergoes. (i)
Directional flow induced orientation alignment (ii) the process of exchanging solvents process to form gel (iii) dried to GO fiber [42]

Fig. 6  Schematic of wet

spinning device: processing
graphene oxide fiber. a Rotary
coagulation bath. b Rotary
draft roller [51]

into the coagulation bath to form colloidal fibers. After a induction gel, low temperature freeze drying can be used
period of coagulation, the colloidal fibers were extracted in coagulation bath [45]. Cong et al. prepared GOF with
through drawing orientation and dried to graphene oxide diameter of 25–120, strength of 145 MPa and the Young’s
fiber (GOF), if required, it can also be further reduced to modulus of 4.5 GPa, after reduced to GRF, its the strength
graphene fiber (GRF). To ensure the uniform continuity and the Young’s modulus increased to 187 MPa, 8.7 GPa,
from gel state to fiber, maintaining a certain move speed at the same time, the electric conductivity of the GRF was
of GO is necessary at the beginning of the gel process. 35 S cm−1 which can be used as sensing materials [46].
Using a rotating bath or using a rotating roller can offer Shear stress was introduced to wet spinning, the ribbon-
a certain draft to GOF from the gel to the fiber formation like GRF prepared by this method has high flexibility and
[43], as shown in Fig. 6a, b. The spinnability of the GOF exhibits good performance in many applications such as
or GRF produced by wet spinning is determined by the flexible strain sensors or counter electrodes [47]. Figure 7
transverse dimension of the GO flakes and the concentra- is the SEM image of the axial and cross-section of GOF.
tion of the GO solution. Long and strong GOF or GRF can By adjusting some parameters during the wet spinning
be spun only when the GO in the slurry is completely in process, GOF or GRF could be prepared with a special sec-
the nematic phase [44]. In addition, the coagulation bath tion and good electrical properties. The GO and carboxy-
plays an important role in the processing process and the methyl cellulose spinning slurry was injected into the gel
performance of GOF or GRF, because gel occurs when bath by the inner and outer two coaxial micro-spinneret
the coagulant broke the stable of GO. Non-solvent phase simultaneously, which formed a graphene/carboxymethyl
separation gel, acid–base imbalance gel, cross-linking cellulose composite fiber with skin–core structure (Fig. 8).

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Fig. 7  SEM image of GOF pre-

pared by wet spinning a axial,
b cross section [51]

The carboxymethyl on sheath layer has the characteristic

of ionic conduction while the graphene on core layer has
the characteristic of electronic conduction. This kind of
skin–core structure fibers could be used as a capacitive
sensor [48]. Hollow GOF as well as GOF multifilament con-
taining 50 graphene oxide microfiber were also prepared
by using the wet spinning with multi-spinneret [49, 50].
These GOF further reduced to the GRF with good electrical
properties which could be used as strain sensors.
Another method to prepare GRF is dry forming. As
shown in Fig. 9, GO dispersion solution was sealed in
glass tube or polypropylene tube and precipitated to gel
by heating or chemical reduction at a high temperature,
Fig. 8  Schematic of GOF with sheath-core structure: graphene GRF can be obtained by further removing the solvent (one
oxide and carboxymethyl cellulose spinning slurry injected simulta- end of tube is closed to retain heat, and the other end is
neously from the two spinneret (left), GO/carboxymethyl cellulose
open to release solvent). Generally, the high temperature
composite fiber with sheath-core structure (right).[48]

Fig. 9  Graphene fiber is dry-forming in a microtube a glass tube [52] The inset shows that the GO dispersion in a vial b the quartz capillary c
PP pipe [53] (d) and e, f SEM images of the side and cross section of GBF [52]

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Fig. 10  Self-assembly from graphene film to fiber a Graphene film. is 1000 S cm−1). f SEM and TEM image of graphene fiber, showing
b The graphene film was self-assembled into a fibrous structure. c plicated and porous structure (inset is the transmission electron
Graphene fiber extracted from ethanol. d Porous wrinkled struc- microscopy (TEM) image of original graphene film). h Raman spec-
ture after drying. e Low-magnification SEM image of graphene troscopy of graphene film and fiber [54]
fiber (inset is current density–voltage curve, electric conductivity

processing can not only remove the solvent, but also ther- film was transferred to an organic solvent (e.g. ethanol),
mally reduces the GO to RGO. Dong et.al encapsulated GO the film first floats on the surface of the solvent (Fig. 10a)
solution in a fine glass tube and treated with 230 °C to and then the edge of the film rolled up immediately, at
remove solvents and thermally reduced GO to RGO, the last the film rolled into a fiber and sank into the solvent
prepared GRF exhibited good electrical conductivity of 10 (Fig. 10b). Tweezers were used to remove the fibrous
S cm−1 [52]. However, two disadvantages of dry forming film from the solvent (Fig. 10c), with the evaporation of
method were that the size of GRF was limited to the size ethanol, the film was shrunk into GRF with multi-porous
of the encapsulated tube and the solvent removal was dif- structure. Although the GRF obtained by self-assembly
ficult, thus it was not suitable for large scale production. method with the conductivity of 1000 S cm−1 was prom-
Graphene can also be processed into a fiber shape ising for sensing materials, its low strength and difficulty
using its self-assembly properties. Li et al. assembled gra- to be further process into a fiber assemblies structure
phene film obtained by the CVD method into a graphene limited its practical application.
fiber through self-assembly method [54]. As shown in In addition, graphene composite fiber (GCRF) can be
Fig. 10, after removing from a copper foil, the grapheme prepared using wet spinning method by mixing the fiber

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forming polymer solutions (e.g. polyvinyl alcohol, cellu- carbon nanotubes [56], polypyrrole [10], polyaniline [57]).
lose, polyacrylonitrile) with graphene or graphene oxide Kou et al. used polyvinyl alcohol /graphene oxide mixed
solution. With a low ratio of graphene or graphene oxide, solution to prepare GCRF, due to hydrogen bonding, PVA
the mechanical properties of the GCRF were improved sig- was well combined with graphene oxide, which can be
nificantly, but it did not have the electrical conductivity. If processed into GOF by wet spinning method and further
the graphene was used as the main component to com- reduce to GCRF (Fig. 11). By adding 5 wt% PVA, the fiber
bine with other fiber forming polymer, the excellent elec- exhibited good mechanical properties (stress of 200 MPa)
trical conductivity of GCRF was retained and its mechanical as well as good electrical conductivity (350 S cm−1) [58].
properties were also improved. The electrical conductivity Xu et al. covered the silver nano wires on the surface of
properties of GCRF can be further enhanced by adding GO, and reduced the GO to RGO by vitamin C, then pre-
other conductive nanofillers(e.g. silver nanowires [55], pared graphene/silver nanowire composite fiber by wet

Fig. 11  Schematic of the preparation process of graphene/PVA phene liquid crystal after oriented. d Wet spinning e Fiber profile,
composite fiber (a) PVA coated on the surface of graphene oxide. covered with PVA in the surface [58]
b Reduced to graphene with hydrazine hydrate, c PVA-coated gra-

Fig. 12  Schematic illustrations of fabrication procedure of FGS based on GWF-PDMS-medical tape film [59]

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Fig. 13  Preparation of FGS utilizing existing fiber assemblies structure. a Non-woven fabric surface covered with redox grapheme. b Yarn
surface covered with graphene oxide and then reduced to grapheme. c Various fiber assemblies are covered with graphene [60]

spinning. The GCRF exhibited good electrical conductivity obtained by CVD, can be used to detect the strain in very
(9.3 × 104 S cm−1) and mechanical properties to be used as small value. Wang et al. prepared a FGS with ultra-sensitive
sensors material [51]. of GF of 1000 under 2–6% strains, 1­ 06 under higher strains
The FGS can also be fabricated by graphene woven fab- (> 7%), and 35 under small strain of 0.2%. (Fig. 12) [59].
ric (GWF) method. Firstly the graphene is growing on a
metallic mesh (normally Cu) by CVD method, then the Cu
mesh is removed by ­FeCl3/HCl treatment and the resulting 3.2 Preparation of the FGS based on off‑the‑shelf
graphene fiber with the woven like structure called GWF fiber assemblies
is transferred to other elastic substrate and further encap-
sulated into FGS. Although time-consuming and complex As shown in Fig. 13, the ordinary fiber assemblies, such
processes, the FGS prepared by this method with high as fabrics (e.g. woven fabric, knitting fabric, non-woven
sensitivity due to good sensing properties of graphene fabric) and yarns, are usually used as the motherboard

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Fig. 14  Schematic of preparing

FGS by dip-coating method
(a) coating graphene on the
surface of existing yarn by LBL
method (b) yarn structure after
coating [1]

substrates to fabricate FGS by integrating the graphene on GO on non-woven fabric substrate and then reduce GO to
the surface of this substrates through dip-coating, printing rGO by using hydroiodic acid, the prepared FGS exhibited
or filtrating. good sensitivity to strain (GF of 7.1) and good piezoresis-
The dip-coating is a simple and most commonly pro- tivity (K = 0.057 kPa−1) [61].
cess by dipping the fiber assemblies with GO or graphene Vacuum Filtration method can also be used to coat GO
solution for a period of time and then dried. The fiber or grapheme solution on fiber assemblies with high den-
assemblies coated with graphene or GO (if it is necessary, sity. Yin et al. firstly coated GO on a high density band-
the GO can be reduced to rGO) can be used as a FGS. Park age fabric made of cotton fibers by vacuum filtration and
et al. reported a highly stretchable (strain > 70%), high then pyrolysis reduced GO to rGO by the flame of ethanol
sensitive (GF > 100) FGS by layer-by-layer (LbL) dip-coating (Fig. 15), the prepared FGS exhibited large stretchability
graphene solution on the surface of yarn substrates [1] (57%) and good sensing performance (GF > 416) [62].
(Fig. 14). Du et al. also reported a FGS by dip-coating the

Fig. 15  a Schematic of the

entire procedure for the fabri-
cation of FGS based on woven
fabric. b SEM micrographics of
FGS magnification: 40 × , 200 × ,
3000 × , and 10 000 × .[62]

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4 . mainly sensing mechanism: geometric effect caused by

the structure or dimension changes of fiber assemblies,
Compared with dipping-coating and vacuum filtration the piezoresistive effect caused by the essential charac-
method, ink-jet printing could precisely deposite the teristics of graphene, and the connection-disconnection
grapheme on the specific area of the fiber assemblies, effect caused by sliding of grapheme sheets [65].
thus raw materials and energy could be saved [63]. How-
ever, it is a challenge to coat a continuous conductive
path on the surface of the fiber assemblies due to its 5.1 Geometric effect
rough and porous surface structure. Karim et al. devel-
oped a printing method to coat graphene on woven When materials are stretched, they tend to shrink in trans-
fabric (Fig. 16), firstly the polyester/cotton woven fabric verse direction and elongate in length direction which
was pretreated by spraying a layer of 200 μm thick sty- based on the Poisson’s ratio of υ. The resistance is given
rene/divinyl benzene emulsion as a flat substrate, then by R = ρL∕A , (where ρ is the electrical resistivity, L is the
GO was coated on the flat surface of fabric by printing, length, and A is the cross-sectional area of the conductor).
at last GO was reduced to rGO by vitamin C. The pre- Resistance of a conductor increases with the elongation of
pared FGS with good electrical properties (resistance of its length and the shrinkage of its cross-sectional. Different
1.18 Ω sq−1) can be used to capture the heart rate [64]. from other sensors, the changes in resistance of the FGS
are first caused by structural changes of fiber assemblies,
and then caused by changes in the length and transverse
5 Sensing mechanism dimensions of the material itself, so the geometric effects
are more complicated. Ma et al. researched the relation-
Strain sensors have different sensing mechanisms because ship between network structure of yarn assemblies and
of the types of materials, micro/nanostructures, and fab- electromechanical properties of knitted or weave fabrics,
rication process. According to the FGS, there are three the resistance of FGS based on fabric will change firstly

Fig. 16  Schematic of the preparation of FGS by inkjet printing method [64]

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by changes of fabric structure, then by the deformation the force, but on the situation of large strain, the discon-
of yarn when the yarn was stretched from curve to fully nected graphene sheets will lose its initial position and
stretch [66]. lead to nonlinear resistance variation due to the residual
strain or stiffness mismatch between graphene and fiber
forming polymer. This is the characteristic of FGS that has
5.2 Piezoresistive effect the properties of high sensitivity and low linearity.
In summary, the challenges and perspectives based on
Change in the resistance of materials caused by the the sensing mechanism can be summarized as follows: (i)
structural deformations and density variation is known to improve the dynamic mechanics of fibers forming poly-
as piezoresistivity. The relative resistance change in this mer. (ii) to research the relationship between the structure
case can be written as: ΔR∕R = (1 + 2υ)ε + Δρ∕ρ , where of fiber assemblies and its electrical–mechanical proper-
υ is the Poisson’s ratio of the fiber material, ε is the strain, ties. (iii) to enhance the interface properties between fib-
and Δρ is the density change value under force, ρ is the ers forming polymer and graphene.
initial density. The former indicates the influence of the
geometric effect, and the latter indicates the piezoresis-
tive property of the material, that is, the change in resist-
ance caused by the density of material under pressure [65, 6 Sensing performance indexes
67]. In the case of large strain, the geometric effect plays
important role in sensing mechanism and the piezoresis- Strain sensing performance of FGS are characterized by
tive effect can be negligible, while Although the materials performance parameters such as stretchability, sensitivity,
as graphene has good piezoresistive effect and with high linearity, hysteresis, response and recovery time, overshoot
sensitivity, the strain requirement of skin-mountable and behavior and durability. These parameters are crucial to
wearable strain sensors (ε > 30%) far exceeds the measure- evaluate the performance of FGS and to determine its
ment limit of graphene itself. The stretchability of the fiber application field.
assembly can makes up for this shortcoming, which is
also the advantage of the FGS. In the case of small strain, 6.1 Stretchability
the piezoresistive effect plays important role in sensing
mechanism [68, 69]. The stretchability is an important index which depends
on nanomaterial structure of fiber assemblies, even the
manufacturing process, and also influences its applica-
5.3 Connection‑disconnection effect tion. For example, a sensor with small strain and high
sensitivity can be used to detect the pulse, heart beat,
Compared with other sensors, the resistance changes of while a sensor with high stretchability (strain > 30%) and
the FGS caused by the connection-disconnection effect with relatively low sensitivity can be used to detect the
is often synergistic with the geometric effects. When gra- movement of limbs and joints [72, 73]. Because GRF/GOF
phene is well combined with fiber forming polymer, its exhibits low stretchability (ε ≤ 10%) [74] (e.g. breaking
excellent electrical conductivity provides a good elec- elongation of GOF and GRF prepared by wet spinning
tronic path through the connection between adjacent is 6.8–10.1% and 5.8% [51], and breaking elongation
sheets. Some of the original connected graphene sheets of GRF prepared by dry-forming is only 4.2%) [52], and
lose overlapping areas and disconnected when stretching, FGS based on fiber exhibited low stretchability, so it is
thereby the electrical resistance increased. On the other necessary to further process the graphene fiber to fiber
hand, the overlapping areas and connection points of assemblies structure or to integrate like GWF structure
adjacent graphene sheets will increase when compressing, with other elastic polymers substrate ( e.g. PET, PA66, PU)
thereby the electrical resistance reduced. This is known as [10, 75, 76]. On the other hand, the FGS based on off-the-
connection-disconnection effect. From the microscopic shelf fiber assemblies normally has higher stretchability,
structure, the disconnection between the overlapping especially on knitting fabric [77].
nano-conductive materials under stretching is due to that
its weak interface with the stretchable polymer interface 6.2 Sensitivity
and large stiffness mismatch, resulting in the slippage
of the nanomaterial [62, 70, 71]. Because the fiber and Sensitivity (GF) is generally expressed as the ratio between
fiber assemblies have a certain strain recovery ability, on the relative change in the electrical signal (usually resist-
the situation of small strain, the disconnected graphene ance or capacitance) and the applied strain (Fig. 17a.),
sheets will be back to its initial position when releasing that is GF = (ΔR∕R0)∕ε or GFs = (ΔC∕C0)∕ε [78]. For

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Fig. 17  a Different sensitivity

of sensor [96]. b Nonlinear
response of sensor [82]. c High
linear response of sensor [86].
d Hysteresis during stretch and
release cycles [87]

piezoresistive sensors, since the strain caused by pressure the change of dimension of the fiber, and the change of
is not easy to measure, it can also be expressed by the the connection-disconnection state of graphene sheets
ratio between the change of resistance (capacitance) and are non-synchronous for FGS, which lead the sensitivity
the given pressure, S = (ΔR∕R0)∕ΔP or GFs = (ΔC∕C0)∕ΔP index of FGS becoming nonlinear in spite of its stretch-
[79]. Sensitivity is also an important indicator of the FGS able properties. At present, there are few researches on the
which i MPact on the accuracy of measurement. For pre- relationship between the linearity of sensitivity and the
cise measurement of small strains, such as pulse and fiber assemblies structure. It is necessary to further study
heart beat, high sensitivity is necessary. Compared with how to design fiber assemblies structure to improve the
the other sensor only on piezoresistive effect, the FGS is linearity of sensitivity index (Fig. 17c).
higher sensitive due to the synergy of the three mecha-
nisms of geometric, connection-disconnection and pie- 6.4 Hysteresis
zoresistive effect [10, 80, 81]. By using the high quality
graphene obtained by CVD method can further improve Hysteresis index must be considered for dynamic strain
the sensitivity of FGS. Wang et al. fabricated a FGS by CVD especially for high frequency strain sensing (Fig. 17d). Due
growing graphene on GWF structure with high sensitivity to viscoelasticity characteristics of fiber [83], the stress
(GF > 1000) but low relatively stretchability (2%–6%) [59]. modulus of fiber forming polymer can be divided into
The coordination between high sensitivity and stretchabil- dynamic elastic modulus and dynamic loss modulus when
ity of FGS that based on fiber assemblies will be a research applied dynamic force. At the same time, the strain can
topic in the future. also be divided into quick elastic strain, slow elastic strain
and plastic strain, these are the main causes of hysteresis
6.3 Linearity [84, 85]. Generally, the hysteresis of the capacitive strain
sensor is smaller than that of the piezoresistive strain sen-
Linearity is an important parameter for stretchable FGS, sor because the capacitance change is related to the sens-
because nonlinearity of sensors makes the calibration ing area between the capacitance plate while the resist-
process complex and difficult for accurate measure- ance change is related to the change of its own resistance
ment (Fig. 17b). The nonlinearity is caused by the fact of the material [86, 87]. For the design of the FGS, capaci-
that the original homogeneous structure is destroyed tance type strain sensor can reduce hysteresis because it
and becomes heterogeneous during the strain process has little correlation with the properties of the material
[82]. Because the change of fiber assemblies structure, itself. In addition to the viscoelasticity of fiber, elastic strain

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and plastic strain also existed in the fiber assemblies struc- cycles is important for wearable sensors, because it has to
ture, so the hysteresis of the FGS is inevitable. Therefore, accommodate large, complex, and dynamic strains while
reasonable selection of fiber forming polymer and fiber wearing. The degradation of the sensing performance of
assemblies structure are the effective ways to reduce the sensors were caused by the fatigue and plastic deforma-
hysteresis of the FGS and to improve the measurement tion of polymer substrates or caused by the interfacial per-
accuracy on high frequency strain. formance degradation between conductive nanofiller and
polymer substrates under long-term stressing/releasing
6.5 Response and recovery time cycles, such as the decrease of sensitivity and the increase
of hysteresis time etc. [91]. For the FGS, to improve the
Response time determines how quickly the strain sen- fatigue resistance of fiber forming polymer and the interfa-
sors move toward stable response. Due to the viscoelastic cial performance between fiber and graphene will improve
properties of the fiber forming polymer, all polymer-based the durability. Although the durability of reported FGS was
strain sensors have a response delay [87, 88]. And due to more than 1000 times, its sensing indexes have deterio-
lower effect of viscoelastic properties on capacitive-type rated due to the degradation of the interfacial properties
strain sensors, it show faster response time than resistive between graphene and the fiber forming polymer sub-
sensors [86]. Recovery time is another important per- strate [62, 81]. Therefore, improving the durability of the
formance parameter of the strain sensor under dynamic FGS to retain a stable sensing performance is worthy to be
stress which caused by the friction force between con- further studied.[92, 93]
ductive fillers and polymer matrix. The capacitive-type In general, FGS usually have properties of good stretch-
strain sensor has relatively short recovery time than resis- ability, high sensitivity, and low linearity. At the same time,
tive type one [2, 86]. For the FGS, the slip of conductive hysteresis, response and recovery time, and overshoot
graphene sheets during the process of applying stress behavior are inevitable due to the viscoelasticity of the
are delayed due to the viscoelastic creep characteristics fiber forming polymers that used as FGS substrate, so its
of fiber forming polymers and the friction between the influence on the sensing accuracy can only be reduced or
graphene sheets and fiber forming polymer matrix, which corrected as much as possible. In addition, its durability
result in the response and recovery time. The response and also need to be further improved. Table 1 listed the main
recovery time must be concerned for the detection of high sensing performance indexes of the FGS that had been
frequency dynamic strain, otherwise, the data collected by reported previously.
the FGS will be distorted.

6.6 Overshoot behavior 7 Application

The stress relaxation of polymers which caused by its vis- The FGS are mainly classified into two categories. One
coelastic properties will lead to the overshoot behavior is with high stretchability and relatively low sensitivity,
of sensors [89, 90]. When the strain is suddenly reserved which can be used to detect large strain such as gesture
at the end of the stretching cycle, polymers intend to recognition, body movements, position measurement,
release their stress instantly by molecular or molecular step measurement. The other is with high sensitivity and
segment motions. These internal structural changes may relatively low stretchability, which can be used to detect
not affect the permittivity of the dielectric layer consider- the small strain such as voice and expression recogni-
ably which lead to a small overshoot behavior to capaci- tion, heartbeat and pulse measurement, physical indi-
tive-type strain sensors. On the other hand, this deforma- cators monitoring. As shown in Fig. 18, Park et al. fabri-
tion may change the resistance of resistive-type sensor, cated a FGS based on yarn structure by LBL dip-coating
causing a relatively large overshoot behavior. For the FGS graphene dispersion on nylon filaments as follow: firstly
the structure changed by the relaxation of fiber forming coating a layer of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) on the surface
polymer lead to the connection-disconnection state of of the nylon filaments, and then dip-coating a layer of
graphene sheets, so the overshoot behavior should not graphene nanosheets dispersion, after multiple layers
be neglected. There are few studies on this area till now. of dip-coating, a PDMS elastic film was used to cover on
the outer layer. The prepared FGS with high stretchable
6.7 Durability (strain > 150%) to monitor movements in various parts
of the body [1]. As shown in Fig. 19, Cheng et al. used
Durability represents the endurance of sensors on the polyester/spandex core-spun yarns as substrates, firstly
long-term stressing/releasing cycles. To have stable sens- coated a layer of GO by dip-coating then reduced GO
ing performance during long-term stressing/releasing to rGO. The prepared FGS has advantages of relatively

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Table 1  Fabrication and main sensing performance indexes of reported FGS

Substrate Combination Stretchability (%) Sensitivity GF Durability (times) Application References

PA6 Dip-coating < 150 2 120 Human motion monitoring [1]

Filament
Sheath-core fiber Dry-coating 15 14.5 3000 Finger recognition [22]
PET/PU Dip-coating <1 10 1000 Heart beat Detection [94]
Core-spun yarn < 50 3.7 Voice recognition
TPU Dip-coating 10 11 250 Human motion [95]
Fibrous mats 100 79
GWF CVD < 0.2 35 − 150 Expression/Voice recognition [59]
2–6 1000
GWF CVD <2 500 20 Pulse measurement [71]
2–6 1000
PU fabric Dip-coating < 40 67.3 70 Movement monitoring [57]
Gesture recognition
PA6/PU Dip-coating < 10 18.5 120 Finger recognition [75]
fabric 10–20 12.1
Cotton bandages filtration < 40 416 250 Voice recognition pulse measurement [62]
< 57 3367

Fig. 18  a Photographs of the FGS based on nylon yarn that sewed in an elbow wrap to monitor the bending motion of arm at different
angles of 45°, 90°, and 135°. b Relative resistance change of the FGS according to the bending motions [1]

highly sensitivity at small strain (GF 10 at strain 1%), at strain < 0.2%) can be used to detect very small strain
short response time (< 100 ms), good durability (> 1000 such as facial expressions and eye blink [59]. As shown
cycles), so it can be used to detect human movement in Fig. 21, Yang et al. used the same method to prepare
of walking, squatting and sound recognition [94]. As FGS based on GWF structure, which has ultra-high sen-
shown in Fig. 20, Wang et al. reported a FGS based on sitivity under small strain (GF 20 at strain < 0.1%). It is
GWF structure, firstly made a GWF structure by CVD similar to the tactile sensation of artificial skin and can
growing method and then transferred GWF to PDMS accurately perceive the difference of pulse in three adja-
elastic structure and encapsulated into a FGS. The pre- cent positions to diagnose human health utilizing the
pared FGS with ultra-sensitivity under small strain (GF 35 theory of traditional Chinese medicine [82]. As shown in

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Fig. 19  The Applications of FGS for human movement monitoring. ing. e FGS attached to the throat. f Responsive curves when wearer
a Photograph of the FGS. b Responsive signal of FGS in monitor- spoke “Hi”, “Hello”, “Sensor”, and “Graphene.” g FGS attached to the
ing finger bending to corresponding positions. c FGS attached to wrist. h Responsive curves of FGS on the wrist before wearing (no
the knee. d Responsive curves of FGS on the knee under motions of load), and under normal/exercise conditions [94]
flexing/extending, walking, jogging, jumping, and squatting-jump-

Fig. 20  Sensing performance of FGS in muscle motions of expression changes and blinks in (a) and (b) respectively [59]

Fig. 22, Lou et al. fabricated a FGS that based on fabric distribution on ground [97]. Although the application
structure, firstly combined the GO with polyester fabric of FGS in the monitoring of human exercise, health and
by dip-coating method and then reduced GO to rGO. physiological indicators is still in-depth research, it is suf-
The prepared FGS with good piezoresistive sensitivity (K ficient to confirm the prospect of future development
0.012 KPa−1 at pressure 800 KPa) and very fast response through the above application examples.
time (50 ms) can be used to detect the plantar pressure

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Fig. 21  Multiposition pulse

reading by FGS. a Location
of the inch opening. b Pulse
signals located at the Cun
(distal), Guan (middle), and Chi
(proximal) positions [82]

Fig. 22  Plantar pressure distribution of right foot in the major phase of one full gait cycle [97]

Integration of graphene with fiber assemblies will inevi- still need to improve is to get the high stretchability and
tably promote the rapid development and widespread high sensitivity in the meantime. It is very important for
applications of wearable electronics. Each of the sensors the innovation of the application of FGS.
listed above has its own advantages, however, what we

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8 Conclusion 3. Li L, Lou Z, Chen D, Jiang K, Han W, Shen G (2017) Recent

advances in fexible/stretchable supercapacitors for wearable
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retention and fatigue resistance during wearing and wash-
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Acknowledgements The work was guided by Intelligent Wearable apmt.2018.02.012
Technology Research Center of Qingdao University and The Key Lab- 13. Liu H, Li Q, Bu Y, Zhang N, Wang C, Pan C et al (2019) Stretch-
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of Ministry of Education, Zhejiang Sci-Tech. ity for tunable wearable strain sensor. Nano Energy. https​://doi.
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14. Gong XX, Fei GT, Fu WB, Fang M, Gao XD, Zhong BN, Zhang
Author contributions This work presented here was performed in col-
LD (2017) Flexible strain sensor with high performance based
laboration with all the authors. All authors read and approved the
on PANI/PDMS films. Org Electron 47:51–56. https ​ : //doi.
final manuscript. Yixin Liu had the idea for the article, Zhaofeng Ouy-
org/10.1016/j.orgel​.2017.05.001
ang and Fei Wang performed the literature search and data analysis,
15. Hao D, Xu B, Cai Z (2018) Polypyrrole coated knitted fabric for
and Ting Wang drafted the work, Yixin Liu critically revised the work.
robust wearable sensor and heater. J Mater Sci 29:9218–9226.
https​://doi.org/10.1007/s1085​4-018-8950-2
Compliance with ethical standards 16. Seyedin S, Razal JM, Innis PC, Jeiranikhameneh A, Beirne S, Wal-
lace GG (2015) Knitted strain sensor textiles of highly conductive
Conflict of interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of all-polymeric fibers. Acs Appl Mater Interfaces 7:21150. https​://
interest. doi.org/10.1021/acsam​i.5b048​92
17. Duan L, Spoerk M, Wieme T, Cornillie P, Xia H, Zhang J et al (2019)
Designing formulation variables of extrusion-based manufac-
turing of carbon black conductive polymer composites for
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