Carbon fiber doped thermosetting elastomer for flexible sensors: physical properties and microfabrication

Ajit Khosla; Shreyas Shah; M D Nahin Islam Shiblee; Sajjad Husain Mir; Larry Akio Nagahara; Thomas Thundat; Praveen Kumar Shekar; Masaru Kawakami; Hidemitsu Furukawa

doi:10.1038/s41598-018-30846-3

Carbon fiber doped thermosetting elastomer for flexible sensors: physical properties and microfabrication

Sci Rep. 2018 Aug 17;8(1):12313. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-30846-3.

Authors

Ajit Khosla¹, Shreyas Shah², M D Nahin Islam Shiblee², Sajjad Husain Mir³, Larry Akio Nagahara⁴, Thomas Thundat⁵, Praveen Kumar Shekar⁶, Masaru Kawakami², Hidemitsu Furukawa²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Mechanical Systems Engineering, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Yamagata University, Jonan 4-3-16, Yonezawa, Yamagata, 992-8510, Japan. khosla@gmail.com.
² Department of Mechanical Systems Engineering, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Yamagata University, Jonan 4-3-16, Yonezawa, Yamagata, 992-8510, Japan.
³ Advanced Materials and BioEngineering Research Centre (AMBER) & Centre for Research on Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices (CRANN), Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin, Dublin, 2, Ireland.
⁴ Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Whiting School of Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD, 21218, USA.
⁵ Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Buffalo, New York City, NY, 14260, USA.
⁶ Nanomaterials and Sensors Laboratory, Washington State University Vancouver, Vancouver, Washington, 98686, USA.

Abstract

We have developed conductive microstructures using micropatternable and conductive hybrid nanocomposite polymer. In this method carbon fibers (CFs) were blended into polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). Electrical conductivities of different compositions were investigated with various fiber lengths (50-250 μm), and weight percentages (wt%) (10-60 wt%). Sample composites of 2 cm × 1 cm × 500 μm were fabricated for 4-point probe conductivity measurements. The measured percolation thresholds varied with length of the fibers: 50 wt% (307.7 S/m) for 50 µm, 40 wt% (851.1 S/m) for 150 µm, and 30 wt% (769.23 S/m) for 250 μm fibers. The conductive composites showed higher elastic modulus when compared to that of PDMS.