3D-Printable Carbon Nanotubes-Based Composite for Flexible Piezoresistive Sensors.

Chaima Fekiri,In Hwan Lee,Ho Chan Kim

doi:10.3390/ma13235482

Chaima Fekiri, In Hwan Lee + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/ma13235482

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Abstract

The intersection between nanoscience and additive manufacturing technology has resulted in a new field of printable and flexible electronics. This interesting area of research tackles the challenges in the development of novel materials and fabrication techniques towards a wider range and improved design of flexible electronic devices. This work presents the fabrication of a cost-effective and facile flexible piezoresistive pressure sensor using a 3D-printable carbon nanotube-based nanocomposite. The carbon nanotubes used for the development of the material are multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) dispersed in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) prepolymer. The sensor was fabricated using the direct ink writing (DIW) technique (also referred to as robocasting). The MWCNT-PDMS composite was directly printed onto the polydimethylsiloxane substrate. The sensor response was then examined based on the resistance change to the applied load. The sensor exhibited high sensitivity (6.3 Ω/kPa) over a wide range of applied pressure (up to 1132 kPa); the highest observed measurement range for MWCNT-PDMS composite in previous work was 40 kPa. The formulated MWCNT-PDMS composite was also printed into high-resolution 3-dimensional shapes which maintained their form even after heat treatment process. The possibility to use 3D printing in the fabrication of flexible sensors allows design freedom and flexibility, and structural complexity with wide applications in wearable or implantable electronics for sport, automotive and biomedical fields.

Highlights

Printed electronics, as the name implies, refers to the use of the additive manufacturing technology to create electronic components in a layer-by-layer printing method
We present a conductive 3D-printable composite based on carbon nanotubes that was extruded using direct ink writing (DIW)
The solvent is the vehicle that will allow the dispersion of the multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) fillers in the polymer matrix

Summary

Introduction

As the name implies, refers to the use of the additive manufacturing technology to create electronic components in a layer-by-layer printing method. The importance of printed electronics gained notice in the past few years both in the academic community and the electronic industry, as they offer a lot of advantages in regard to freedom of design, relatively fewer fabrication steps and scalability. They are more environmentally friendly as opposed to subtractive lithography-based and patterning methods currently used for the fabrication of most electronics. To fabricate a silicon-based integrated circuit (IC) chip, several hundreds of steps are required, from the preparation of a single crystal silicon substrate to making the components This is an extremely complex process, including film deposition, lithography and acidic etching, not to mention a highly expensive process [1]. The functional material can be directly printed with the desired patterns onto the Materials 2020, 13, 5482; doi:10.3390/ma13235482 www.mdpi.com/journal/materials

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