Enhancing the Piezoresistance Senstivity and Repeatability of Carbon Nanotube/Silicone Nanocomposites

Abstract

The nanocomposites of carbon nanotube/polymer have been studied to explore their piezoresistance properties, which can be used as smart materials in the fields like biomedical engineering, robotic engineering, and advanced instrumentation. The differences in piezoresistance behavior of the previous studies were explained by the less uniformity of carbon nanotubes. To clarify the resistance versus deformation relations for carbon nanotube/silicone rubber composite materials, we have fabricated composite materials with various nanotube and carbon black contents. The measurements show that the resistance versus deformation sensitive range is depends on both the content of nanotube and carbon black, while the tiny variation of content of the carbon black affects largely the total piezoresistance sensitivity and repeatability. The experiment shows that adequate amount of carbon balck mixed with carbon nanotube can improve the piezoresistance repeatability. The deformation induced variation of the conducting percolation network shall be the dominating mechanism for the piezoresistance behavior of carbon nanotube/silicone rubber composites.