Issue 3, 2016

Tailoring percolating conductive networks of natural rubber composites for flexible strain sensors via a cellulose nanocrystal templated assembly

Abstract

Conductive polymer composites (CPCs) just above the percolation threshold exhibit a unique strain-reversible electric response upon application of tensile strain, which can be used to prepare strain sensors. However, it is difficult to balance the electric conductivity which is fundamental to a stable output signal and the strain sensing sensitivity due to the relatively dense conductive pathways of the traditional CPCs. Constructing a “brittle” but effective conductive network structure in CPCs is the essential foundation of a desirable sensing material. Here, we demonstrate for the first time that highly flexible, stretchable, sensitive, and reversible strain sensors can be fabricated by a facile latex assembly approach, in which nontoxic, sustainable and biodegradable cellulose nanocrystals played a key role in tailoring the percolating network of conductive natural rubber (NR)/carbon nanotube (CNT) composites. The resulting nanocomposites with a continuous 3D conductive structure exhibited a very low electrical conductivity percolation threshold (4-fold lower than that of the conventional NR/CNT composites), high resistivity and sensitivity (gauge factor ≈ 43.5) and meanwhile good reproducibility of up to 100% strain. The proposed materials and principles in this study open up a novel practical approach to design high performance flexible sensors for a broad range of multifunctional applications.

Graphical abstract: Tailoring percolating conductive networks of natural rubber composites for flexible strain sensors via a cellulose nanocrystal templated assembly

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
06 Aug 2015
Accepted
28 Oct 2015
First published
29 Oct 2015

Soft Matter, 2016,12, 845-852

Tailoring percolating conductive networks of natural rubber composites for flexible strain sensors via a cellulose nanocrystal templated assembly

S. Wang, X. Zhang, X. Wu and C. Lu, Soft Matter, 2016, 12, 845 DOI: 10.1039/C5SM01958C

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