Facile fabrication of three-dimensional graphene foam/poly(dimethylsiloxane) composites and their potential application as strain sensor.

A three-dimensional (3D) graphene foam (GF)/poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) composite was fabricated by infiltrating PDMS into 3D GF, which was synthesized by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) with nickel foam as template. The electrical properties of the GF/PDMS composite under bending stress were investigated, indicating the resistance of the GF/PDMS composite was increased with the bending curvature. To improve the bending sensitivity of the GF/PDMS composite, a thin layer of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) was introduced as substrate to form double-layer GF/PDMS-PET composite, whose measurements showed that the resistance of the GF/PDMS-PET composite was still increased when bended to the side of PET, whereas its resistance would be decreased when bended to the side of GF. For both cases, the absolute value of the relative variation of electrical resistance was increased with the bending curvature. More importantly, the relative variation of electrical resistance for double-layer GF/PDMS-PET composite can be up to six times higher than single-layer GF/PDMS composite for the same bending curvature. These observations were further supported by the principle of mechanics of material. The 3D GF/PDMS-PET composite also has higher flexibility and environment stability and can be utilized as a strain sensor with high sensitivity, which can find important applications in real-time monitoring of buildings, such as a bridge, dam, and high-speed railway.