A flexible piezoresistive carbon black network in silicone rubber for wide range deformation and strain sensing

Abstract

This work presents the design, fabrication, and measurement of a piezoresistive device with a carbon black (CB) particle network in a highly flexible silicone rubber for large deformation and wide range strain sensing. The piezoresistive composite film was fabricated with a mixture of silicone rubber and CB filler particles. The test results showed that the CB particle network in the silicone rubber strongly affected the resistance of the device during the process of drawing and its recovery. We found that the 50% volume ratio of CB filler particles showed a lower relative resistance than the 33.3% volume ratio of CB filler particles, but with an advantage of good resistance recovery stability and a smaller perturbation error (smaller changed resistance) during the periodic back and forth linear motor test. With both having a 50% volume ratio of CB filler particles and a 33.3% volume ratio of CB filler particles, one can reach up to 200% strain with resistances 18 kΩ and 110 kΩ, respectively. We also found that the relative resistance increased in an approximately linear relationship corresponding to the value of step-increased instantaneous length for the reported device. Moreover, an application test through hand drawing was used to demonstrate the piezoresistive performance of the device, which showed that the reported device was capable of measuring the instantaneous length with large deformation.

Investigating the Electromechanical Properties of Carbon Black-Based Conductive Polymer Composites via Stochastic Modeling

“…Numerous manufacturing methods for creating carbon-based CPC transducers have been demonstrated in the literature, including injection/compression molding [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ], extrusion [ 18 , 19 ], melt-spinning [ 20 ], 3D-printing and ink-jetting [ 15 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 ], fumigation coating [ 27 , 28 ], spray-layer-by-layer (sLBL) [ 5 , 29 ], and hot pressing [ 13 , 30 , 31 , 32 ] among others [ 33 , 34 , 35 ]. While various manufacturing methods have been reported in the literature, the results of studies of CPCs with similar constituent materials reveal significant variation in nominal electromechanical properties, as shown in Figure 1 .…”

Fabrication, characterization, and repair of nanocarbon-loaded aircraft paint-based sensors for real-world SHM: studies at the laboratory scale

“…The high cost of CNT sensors for large-area sensing has also been raised as a concern. 3,14,17 Carbon black (CB) 14,23–27 and exfoliated graphite nanoplatelets (xGnP), 21 also called exfoliated graphite, 16,28 can be less costly alternatives, but their required loading is higher, 5–30 wt%, leading to a risk of losing the host polymer’s strength and ability to adhere to a substrate. Other names for xGnP have included graphite nanoplatelets, 29,30 graphene, 31,32 multilayer graphene, 7,33 graphene nanopowder, 31 graphene nanosheets, 32 and graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs).…”

Deformation of Gels with Spherical Auxetic Inclusions

“…Some hybrid auxetic/conventional systems can provide interesting functionalities; for example, the KinetiX system [ 38 ] enables individuals to produce programmable materials and switch the auxetic function to selected holes in a targeted manner. The next application of the controlled mechanical response of hybrid auxetic materials is strain sensing, which is the collection of mechanical energy and transformation to electric energy; it is currently performed with gels that have filler, such as carbon black [ 39 ] or zinc oxide [ 40 ]. The auxetic enables the designer to achieve controllable high sensitivity [ 41 , 42 ].…”