Bioinspired wrinkle–crack interaction enables ultralinear stretchable strain sensors with ultralow hysteresis

Linearity and hysteresis are frequently overlooked critical parameters in the pursuit of ultrahigh sensitivity for flexible strain sensors. Significant nonlinearity and hysteresis can lead to poor measured accuracy as pre-strain often occurs and hard to be completely eliminated during installation. Here, inspired by the geometry and function of scorpions’ sensing organs, a surface wrinkle–cracks interaction engineering combined with a double conductive network is proposed and introduced into stretchable strain sensors, achieving an outstanding linearity of up to 0.9985 and a sufficient sensitivity of 22.8 over a working strain range of 30%, along with a low hysteresis of 1.91%. Wearable applications demonstrate the proposed strain sensor works reliably when installed on the measured surfaces, regardless of whether pre-strain is generated, achieving convenient and arbitrary conformal installation. This surface wrinkle–cracks interaction engineering provides a potential strategy for other stretchable strain sensors to achieve high sensing performance indexes and excellent functions simultaneously.