A strain sensor based on an aligned carbon particle string in a UV-cured polymer matrix

作者：Hoyer H^*; Knaapila M; Kjelstrup Hansen J; Liu X; Helgesen G

来源：Applied Physics Letters, 2011, 99(21): 213106.

DOI：10.1063/1.3662969

• carbon
• curing
• electrical resistivity
• electrophoresis
• filled polymers
• microsensors
• nanoparticles
• strain sensors

We demonstrate micro-mechanical strain sensors by aligning carbon black particles into single wirelike strings in a polymer matrix using an alternating electric field (dielectrophoresis) when the particle fraction is 0.1 vol. %. The strings are stabilized by UV-curing the polymer matrix and characterized electrically and electromechanically. Particle alignment makes the material conductive, and the stretching of such strings in polymer matrices gives a reversible change in resistivity. A gauge factor of about 150 is demonstrated. Nonaligned films containing 12 vol. % of carbon particles in the same polymer are conductive but not sensitive to similar stretching.

• 出版日期2011-11-21