Biomimetic strain sensors based on patterned polydimethylsiloxane and Ir nanoparticles decorated multi-walled carbon nanotubes

•We first fabricate the biomimetic strain sensor based on patterned-polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and Ir nanoparticles (Ir NPs) decorated multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs).•The patterned PDMS film was biomimetically copied from duck web, and the Ir NPs was deposited on MWCNTs by atomic layer deposition.•The strain sensor possesses better comprehensive sensing performances, indicating promising prospects in applications such as human motion detection, wearable electronics, and so on.