Highly Exfoliated MWNT-rGO Ink-Wrapped Polyurethane Foam for Piezoresistive Pressure Sensor Applications

Amit Tewari, Srinivas Gandla, Siva Bohm, Christopher R. McNeill, Dipti Gupta

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

218 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The fabrication of pressure sensors based on reduced graphene oxide (rGO) as the sensing material is challenging due to the intrinsic hydrophobic behavior of graphene oxide inks as well as the agglomeration of graphene oxide flakes after reduction. Hydrazine (a reducing agent) and a dual-component additive comprising benzisothiazolinone and methylisothiazolinone in appropriate proportion were used to synthesize a rGO ink with a hydrophilic nature. Utilizing this hydrophilic rGO ink mixed with multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs), a very simple, low-cost approach is demonstrated for the fabrication of a pressure sensor based on polyurethane (PU) foam coated with the MWNT-rGO ink (MWNT-rGO@PU foam). The MWNT-rGO@PU foam-based devices are shown to be versatile pressure sensors with the potential to detect both small-scale and large-scale movements. At low pressure (below 2.7 kPa, 50% strain), the formation of microcracks that scatter electrical charges results in a detectable increase in resistance suitable for detecting small-scale motion. At a higher pressure, the compressive contact of the coated faces of the PU foam results in a sharp decrease in resistance suitable for monitoring of large-scale motion. Moreover, these sensors exhibit good flexibility and reproducibility over 5000 cycles. The versatility of this sensor has been demonstrated in a wide range of applications, such as speech recognition, health monitoring, and body motion detection. The significant advantages of this sensor are that its cost is low, it is easy to fabricate, and it has a versatility that renders it favorable to health-monitoring applications.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)5185-5195
Number of pages11
JournalACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
Volume10
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 14 Feb 2018
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

Keywords

  • microcracks
  • multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs)
  • piezoresistive pressure sensor
  • polyurethane (PU) foam
  • reduced graphene oxide (rGO)
  • sensitivity

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