Flexible Zinc Oxide Nanowire Array/Graphene Nanohybrid for High-Sensitivity Strain Detection.

A fully flexible strain sensor consisting of vertically aligned ZnO nanowires on graphene transferred on polyethylene terephthalate with prefabricated Au/Ti electrodes (ZnO-VANWs/Gr)/PET) has been obtained. The ZnO-VANWs were grown in solution using a seedless hydrothermal process and are single-crystalline of (0001) orientation that provides optimal piezoelectric gating on graphene when deformed mechanically. The change of the graphene channel conductance under such a piezoelectric gating through transduction of the mechanical deformation on the ZnO-VANWs/Gr was used to detect the strain induced by the deformation.