Feasibility of polyethylene film as both supporting material for transfer and target substrate for flexible strain sensor of CVD graphene grown on Cu foil

Chemical vapour deposited graphene on Cu foil should be transferred to target dielectric substrate before being used in various applications. This route often involves preparation of a supporting material on graphene before the transfer process and removal of the material after graphene is transferred to a foreign substrate. Herein, we demonstrate a simple process combining graphene transfer and subsequent graphene-based sensor preparation in one route. By applying a thin flexible polyethylene (PE) film onto graphene and subsequently chemical etching Cu foil, this process enables the high-quality transfer of graphene on PE film. A flexible strain sensor prepared from the as-transferred graphene/PE film shows good detection sensitivity. Therefore, this process could greatly reduce the cost of transfer and device fabrication for mass production.