Bio-Inspired Flow Sensor Using 3-D Graphene Aerogel Spheres

This paper presents the design, fabrication and characterization of a wind flow sensor using 3-D graphene aerogels as strain sensing elements. The sensor mimics hair-cell mechanical receptors widely found in nature. This work is the first demonstration of using 3-D graphene aerogel for constructing flow sensors. We simulated the graphene aerogel deformation under different wind speeds and predicted the experimental data well with our mechanical model. Moreover, we demonstrated good linearity with good sensitivity of 16.6% resistance change per m/s. Our sensor also shows good directional sensibility. Assuming the detection limit for resistance change is 0.1%, the detection limit can be as small as 6 mm/s. This flow sensor can potentially be used in smart infrastructure monitoring and wind speed measurement.