Abstract
Polymer composites with nanomaterials such as graphene nanoplatelets and carbon nanotubes are a new group of materials with high application possibilities in printed and flexible electronics. In this study such carbon nanomaterials were used as a conductive phase in polymer composites. Pastes with dispersed nanomaterials in PMMA and PVDF vehicles were screen printed on flexible substrates, and used as an active layer in pressure sensors, exploiting contact resistance phenomena. The relationship between resistance and pressure is nearly linear on a logarithmic scale for selected types of samples, and their response is several times higher than for similar sensors with graphite layers. The use of surfactants allowed us to fabricate evenly dispersed nanomaterials with different amount of nanoplatelets and nanotubes in the composites. The samples contained from 1.25 wt.% to 2 wt.% of graphene and 1 wt.% to 0.5 wt.% of nanotubes and exhibited diverse sheet resistivity. Experiments revealed the relationship between morphology and loading of functional phase in the polymer matrix and the sensors' sensitivity.
Highlights
Nowadays, a lot of attention is focused on the use of carbon nanostructures in various applications.Graphene and carbon nanotubes are attractive materials for reinforcing purposes and use as a functional phase in polymer composites, due to their excellent mechanical properties, with high thermal and electrical conductivity [1,2]
We report the fabrication of screen printed, resistive pressure sensors as a continuation of our first experiments concerning resistive layers made with carbon nanotubes [24]
Resistance measurements of screen printed layers showed that the increase of the carbon filler loading in the polymer composite causes the decrease of their sheet resistivity
Summary
A lot of attention is focused on the use of carbon nanostructures in various applications. Graphene and carbon nanotubes are attractive materials for reinforcing purposes and use as a functional phase in polymer composites, due to their excellent mechanical properties, with high thermal and electrical conductivity [1,2]. Such carbon nanomaterials are widely utilized in supercapacitors [3,4], FETs [5], transparent electrodes [6,7], and various chemical and biochemical sensors [8,9,10,11]. We report the fabrication of screen printed, resistive pressure sensors as a continuation of our first experiments concerning resistive layers made with carbon nanotubes [24] Such sensors are alternatives to commonly used strain gauges based on tensometric bridges. Strain gauge bridges glued onto springy sensor structures undoubtedly are a disadvantage hindering their use in places with limited accessibility
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