Fabrication of a wrinkled structure made of wearable polyacrylonitrile/polyurethane composite fibers with elastic sensing properties suitable for human movement detection

Abstract Research in wearable sensors is guided by the need for bendable, comfortable, and deformable sensors. In this study, an elastic electronic sensor is fabricated to monitor human movement. It adopts a centrifugal electrospinning technology, and the fibers form a wavy wrinkled structure by itself. This structure gives the sensor good resistance response under high strength deformation. After stretching to 180% of the original length, the numerical value of resistance is increased by 2000%. The sensor generates different signals that depend upon the variation in different human actions, making it suitable for use as a monitor of human movement.