Abstract
•Direct abrasion provides a cost effective way to deposit tungsten disulphide (WS2) on paper substrates.•The deposited film electrical resistance strongly depends on the applied mechanical strain.•The gauge factor can reach values up to ~70, one order of magnitude larger than similar devices with graphite sensing layer.•Paper-supported strain gauges can be used to monitor deformations in resonators and to measure forces and masses.•These strain gauges can be interesting in disposable electronic applications.
[Display omitted]
Environmentally friendly and low-cost sensors are needed for the next generation disposable electronics applications. Given its low-cost, availability and biodegradability, paper-based devices are a very promising. Here we demonstrate the fabrication of a tungsten disulphide (WS2) strain sensor on standard copy paper. The WS2 is deposited through direct abrasion of WS2 powder against the paper surface making the fabrication of the device low-tech and cost effective. The fabricated strain gauge devices present gauge factors up to ~70 for strains in the±0.5% range. These values are ~ 9 times larger than that obtained on devices with the same geometry but using a graphite film instead a WS2 as a sensitive material. We demonstrate the potential of these WS2-on-paper strain gauges by integrating them directly on a paper cantilever to sense mass and forces. We show how this very simple device can detect sub-milligram masses. Moreover, we also demonstrate the capability of transducing motion in mechanical resonators by gluing a WS2-on-paper strain gauge on their surface.