Abstract
We report highly sensitive and reliable strain sensors based on silver nanoparticle (AgNP) and carbon nanotube (CNT) composite thin films. The CNT/AgNP was prepared by a screen printing process using a mixture of a CNT paste and an AgNP ink. It is discovered that the sensitivity of such sensors are highly dependent on the crack formation in the composites. By altering the substrate use and the relative ratios of AgNPs and CNTs, the formation and propagation of cracks can be properly engineered, leading to piezoresistive strain sensors with enhanced sensitivity and robustness.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s11671-016-1626-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Strain gauges are of interest to many applications including structural health monitoring and active input control devices [1,2,3,4,5,6]
Fabrication of carbon nanotube (CNT)/Silver nanoparticle (AgNP) Piezoresistive Sensors The CNT/Ag piezoresistive sensors were fabricated according to the scheme shown in Fig. 1, which involves polyimide (PI)/polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) bilayer substrate preparation and subsequent deposition of the CNT/AgNP composite film
The CNT–AgNP composite paste was prepared by thoroughly mixing a AgNP ink (Paru Company, Ltd., 42 wt.%) and a CNT paste (SWeNT Inc.; the single-walled CNT (SWCNT) were dispersed in volatile solvents without a polymer binder with a concentration of 0.2 wt.%) at varied mass ratios and spread onto the plasma-treated PDMS side via screen printing (Fig. 1c)
Summary
Strain gauges are of interest to many applications including structural health monitoring and active input control devices [1,2,3,4,5,6]. Metallic foil gauges are more robust but lack sensitivity (GF of 2–5) [8]. A variety of nanomaterials such as graphene, carbon nanotubes (CNTs), metallic nanoparticles (NPs), and metal nanowires have shown promising properties for piezoresistive strain sensors [1, 9,10,11,12,13,14]. Many of those nanomaterials can be processed using solution based methods, potentially enabling low-cost fabrication and large area application
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