Mechano-luminescence-optoelectronic strain sensing strips for health monitoring wearables

In this study, we present the mechano-luminescence-optoelectronic (MLO) strip capable of DC-based strain sensing. The conceptual design of the MLO strip was presented and the MLO strip prototype was fabricated to measure tensile strains in a distributed manner. The MLO strip has three MLO-based sensor nodes along the strip. The MLO is composed of two functional constituents – the mechano-luminescent (ML) copper-doped zinc sulfide (ZnS:Cu)-embedded polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) (ZnS:Cu-PDMS) micro-composites and the mechano-optoelectronic (MO) poly(3- hexylthiophene) (P3HT-based thin films. The ML and MO functional constituents were assembled and encased using the PDMS in a strip mold to complete the preparation of the MLO strip prototype. The MLO strip prototypes were subjected to cyclic tensile loadings while measuring DC output from the sensor nodes in the MLO strip.