1 Introduction
The rapid growth of wearable electronics, electronic skin (e-skin), soft robotics, and human-machine interfaces (HMIs) has created a strong demand for flexible and stretchable strain sensors capable of accurately detecting mechanical deformations associated with human motion and physiological activities. Such sensors are essential for applications including real-time health monitoring, motion tracking, gesture recognition, and interactive wearable systems. However, conventional strain sensors based on rigid metallic foils or semiconductor materials suffer from limited stretchability, poor mechanical compliance, and mechanical mismatch with soft biological tissues, which restricts their applicability in wearable environments [1–5].
Electrospun nanofiber-based materials have emerged as a promising platform to address these challenges. Electrospinning is a fiber fabrication technique that produces continuous nano- to microscale fibers by applying a high-voltage electric field to polymer solutions or melts. During the electrospinning process, a charged polymer jet is ejected from a Taylor cone, undergoes extensive stretching and solvent evaporation, and is finally deposited as a nonwoven fibrous network. This process enables precise control over fiber diameter, orientation, and network morphology through adjustment of solution properties, processing parameters, and collector configurations [6]. One of the most distinctive features of electrospun nanofibers is their highly porous and interconnected network structure. This architecture provides a large specific surface area and low bending stiffness, resulting in excellent flexibility, stretchability, and conformability to complex and dynamic skin surfaces. Unlike dense polymer films, electrospun nanofiber mats accommodate mechanical deformation through fiber sliding, rotation, and gradual network rearrangement, allowing them to sustain large strains while minimizing stress concentration and mechanical fatigue.
Electrospun nanofibers also offer exceptional material versatility. A wide range of elastomeric polymers can be electrospun to form mechanically compliant substrates, while conductive materials such as carbon-based nanomaterials, metallic nanoparticles, and conductive polymers can be incorporated to establish electrically active networks. These conductive pathways are highly sensitive to mechanical deformation, as changes in fiber-fiber contact, tunneling distance, and microstructural arrangement directly translate into measurable electrical resistance variations.
The necessity of electrospun nanofiber-based strain sensors becomes particularly evident in wearable applications that require long-term skin contact. Their lightweight, breathable, and soft fibrous structures enhance wearing comfort and reduce skin irritation by allowing efficient air and moisture transport. At the same time, the amplified electromechanical response of nanofiber networks enables high sensitivity across a wide strain range, making them suitable for detecting both subtle physiological signals, such as respiration and muscle movement, and large-scale body motions, such as joint bending and gesture actions. Overall, the combination of structural tunability, mechanical compliance, high sensitivity, and wearing comfort positions electrospun nanofiber-based strain sensors as a highly attractive solution for next-generation wearable electronics and human-machine interface systems.
2 Working Mechanisms of Electrospun Nanofiber-based Strain Sensors
Electrospun nanofiber-based strain sensors predominantly operate through piezoresistive sensing mechanisms, in which externally applied mechanical deformation is translated into measurable electrical resistance changes. Owing to their porous and interconnected fibrous architectures, these sensors exhibit electromechanical responses that are fundamentally different from those of bulk films or rigid composites [1,7,8].
One of the primary sensing mechanisms is the variation in fiber-fiber contact resistance. In the initial state, conductive fibers or conductive fillers distributed within the nanofiber network form percolated electrical pathways. Upon tensile deformation, changes in fiber spacing, sliding, and reorientation alter the number and quality of contact points, leading to pronounced resistance variations [9–11]. For example, high-performance wearable strain sensors constructed by embedding conductive networks within elastomeric matrices exhibit large stretchability and stable electromechanical responses, in which deformation-induced disruption and reconfiguration of conductive pathways govern the resistance change (Fig. 1(a)) [13]. Such network-dominated sensing mechanisms enable reliable signal output under repeated large deformation, which is critical for long-term wearable motion monitoring and human-machine interface applications.
Another critical mechanism involves electron tunneling effects between adjacent conductive fillers. In electrospun composite nanofibers incorporating carbon nanotubes, metallic nanoparticles, carbon black, or MXene nanosheets, electrical conduction often relies on tunneling across nanoscale gaps [15–17,22]. Mechanical stretching increases these inter-filler distances, resulting in an exponential increase in resistance and enabling high gauge factors, especially in the low-strain regime. Huang et al. developed a highly stretchable and sensitive strain sensor by constructing CNT-bridged Ag nanoparticle conductive networks on an electrospun thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) fibrous membrane, achieving an exceptionally large working strain range and ultrahigh gauge factor [15]. As shown in Fig. 1(b), SEM images further reveal that the CNT-bridged Ag nanoparticles are uniformly distributed on the electrospun TPU fibers, providing direct morphological evidence of interconnected conductive pathways that support tunneling-dominated strain sensing behavior.
Crack-based sensing behavior is also widely reported in electrospun nanofiber-based strain sensors. Controlled microcracks can be generated within conductive coatings or surface-decorated nanofiber networks during initial deformation. Subsequent stretching causes reversible crack opening and closing, producing large resistance changes while maintaining overall structural integrity [18,19]. The electrospun nanofiber scaffold plays a crucial role in suppressing catastrophic crack propagation and ensuring mechanical robustness under cyclic loading. The evolution of crack morphology and its direct correlation with resistance variation are schematically illustrated in Fig. 1c, highlighting how nanofiber-supported crack modulation enables ultrasensitive yet durable strain sensing over a broad strain range [19].
Overall, the synergistic contribution of contact resistance variation, tunneling effects, and crack modulation endows electrospun nanofiber-based strain sensors with high sensitivity, broad working strain ranges, and excellent mechanical robustness, making them well suited for wearable electronics and human-machine interface applications.
3 Applications of Electrospun Nanofiber-based Strain Sensors
Compared with conventional strain sensors, electrospun nanofiber-based devices exhibit superior conformability to curved and dynamic skin surfaces, allowing accurate detection of both subtle physiological signals and large-amplitude body movements. Furthermore, their fibrous and porous structures minimize mechanical constraints and enhance wearing comfort during long-term use. As a result, these sensors have been widely explored for applications ranging from joint motion tracking and respiratory monitoring to gesture recognition and soft robotic control [12]. This section reviews recent progress in the application of electrospun nanofiber-based strain sensors, with a focus on human motion monitoring and healthcare (Section 3.1), as well as emerging HMI-related applications, including soft robotics, virtual/augmented reality (VR/AR), and sign-language recognition (Section 3.2).
3.1 Human Motion Monitoring and Healthcare Applications
Electrospun nanofiber-based strain sensors have been widely investigated for human motion monitoring and healthcare applications, where reliable detection of complex body movements and subtle physiological signals is required. Several studies have demonstrated that fibrous sensor architectures can effectively translate mechanical deformation into stable electrical signals while maintaining excellent compatibility with soft and dynamic skin surfaces [13–23].
Leong et al. developed MXene-polymer composite strain sensors to achieve high sensitivity and a wide sensing range suitable for monitoring various joint motions [17]. The authors demonstrated that the sensor could be attached to different body parts, including fingers, wrists, and elbows, and produce distinct and repeatable electrical responses corresponding to different bending angles, as illustrated in Fig. 2(a). The large gauge factor enabled clear differentiation between small and large deformations, allowing accurate recognition of motion states. Moreover, the sensor exhibited stable performance under repeated loading-unloading cycles, highlighting its potential for continuous monitoring of daily activities. Another representative study focused on ultrathin nanomesh-type strain sensors designed to achieve imperceptible integration with the human skin [18]. In this work, the authors demonstrated that the nanomesh devices could accurately reflect natural skin strain distributions during facial movement and speech as shown in Fig. 2(b). The strain patterns detected on one side of the face exhibited symmetry with those on the opposite side, indicating that the sensor closely followed actual skin deformation without introducing mechanical constraints. The authors attributed this exceptional conformability to the ultrathin geometry, extremely low weight, and soft mechanical properties of the nanomesh structure. As a result, the sensors established intimate contact with curvilinear skin surfaces while allowing the underlying skin to undergo free stretching and compression during dynamic facial motions. In contrast, conventional film-type strain sensors either suppressed natural skin deformation or experienced slippage due to poor mechanical compliance, leading to inaccurate signal acquisition. In addition, the excellent conformability and mechanical compliance of electrospun nanofiber architectures enable detecting subtle, speech-related physiological signals. Wang et al. integrated a flexible thermoplastic polyurethane/carbon black (TPU/CB) fibrous strain sensor onto the neck region to monitor vocal activity during speech as shown in Fig. 2(c) [22]. The authors reported that the sensor was capable of capturing clear and distinguishable electrical responses corresponding to slight neck movements induced by speaking.
Collectively, these studies demonstrate that electrospun nanofiber-based strain sensors can reliably monitor a broad spectrum of human motions, ranging from large joint movements to subtle physiological activities. Their high sensitivity, mechanical compliance, and excellent wearability make them promising candidates for next-generation wearable healthcare systems requiring continuous, noninvasive sensing.
3.2 Human-Machine Interface Applications
The rapid progress of flexible electronics and artificial intelligence has exposed the limitations of traditional low-freedom HMI devices, motivating the development of wearable strain sensors for multidimensional interaction and human–machine synchronization. electrospun nanofiber-based strain sensors have gained significant attention in human-machine interface (HMI) applications, where accurate and intuitive translation of human motion into machine-readable signals is required. Several studies have demonstrated that fibrous sensor architectures can effectively capture complex deformation patterns while maintaining mechanical compliance and stable electrical performance, enabling advanced interactive systems such as gesture recognition, electronic skin, and soft robotic interfaces [25–31].
Highly conductive and breathable electrodes based on electrospun polyurethane mats decorated with carbon nanotubes were developed for multifunctional wearable interfaces [31]. The authors demonstrated that these fibrous electrodes could be integrated onto the human body to monitor dynamic finger and hand motions, as summarized in Fig. 3(a). Distinct and repeatable electrical signals were generated during different bending states, allowing clear differentiation of various gestures. In addition, the breathable and stretchable nature of the electrospun mats enabled stable signal acquisition under repeated deformation, highlighting their suitability for interactive wearable electronics and real-time motion-controlled systems. Fig. 3(b) presents another representative strategy, in which a nacre-inspired strain sensor with tunable interfacial interactions was proposed to enhance sensitivity and signal discrimination [27]. The authors demonstrated that subtle differences in finger bending sequences could be accurately detected and translated into distinct electrical response patterns. By integrating multiple sensors, complex hand gestures corresponding to sign-language motions were successfully recognized, illustrating the potential of fibrous strain sensors for intuitive communication interfaces and assistive technologies. Beyond gesture-based communication, advanced HMI applications require strain sensors capable of resolving deformation direction and enabling multidimensional control. Direction-aware biaxial electrospun nanofiber-based strain sensors have therefore emerged as effective interfaces for human-machine interaction, as demonstrated by systems in which the movement of a red virtual ball is controlled in a two-dimensional space [26]. By employing two orthogonally arranged sensing elements, strain applied along different directions can be independently detected and translated into real-time control signals (Fig. 3(c)). These results illustrate that biaxial sensor architectures composed of electrospun nanofibers can achieve intuitive multi-degree-of-freedom control, highlighting their potential as compact and efficient HMI interfaces for virtual environments and interactive systems.
Overall, these studies indicate that electrospun nanofiber-based strain sensors constitute a flexible and high-performing platform for human-machine interface applications. Their tunable architectures, excellent mechanical compliance, and ability to decode complex motion behaviors position them as key building blocks for next-generation interactive wearable technologies, such as gesture-driven electronics, sign-language interpretation systems, and soft robotic interfaces.
4 Conclusion
Electrospun nanofiber-based strain sensors have emerged as a powerful and versatile platform for wearable electronics, offering a unique combination of high sensitivity, mechanical compliance, stretchability, and breathability. The intrinsic advantages of electrospun fibrous architectures, including high specific surface area, interconnected porous networks, and low bending stiffness, enable efficient transduction of mechanical deformation into electrical signals while maintaining excellent conformability to dynamic and curved skin surfaces.
Through material selection, composite design, and structural engineering, electrospun nanofiber-based sensors have achieved significant progress in key performance metrics such as gauge factor, working strain range, durability, and directional sensing capability. These advances have facilitated their application in diverse wearable scenarios, ranging from human motion monitoring and healthcare to advanced human-machine interfaces, including soft robotics, gesture recognition, and electronic skin systems.
Despite these achievements, several challenges remain that must be addressed to accelerate practical deployment. Issues related to large-area uniformity, device-to-device reproducibility, long-term environmental stability, and scalable manufacturing processes continue to limit widespread commercialization. In addition, system-level integration with signal conditioning, wireless communication, and data processing units requires further optimization.
Future research efforts are expected to focus on multifunctional sensor integration, intelligent signal interpretation assisted by machine learning, and rigorous validation in real-world and clinical environments. With continued advances in materials science, fabrication strategies, and system integration, electrospun nanofiber-based strain sensors are poised to play a critical role in next-generation wearable electronics and interactive human-machine systems.


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