Piezoresistive thermoplastic polyurethane nanocomposites with carbon nanostructures

Effect of Solvent on Segregated Network Morphology in Elastomer Composites for Tunable Piezoresistivity

“…[31,32] However, it is quite challenging to simultaneously achieve these properties by using the aforementioned traditional mixing methods. Therefore, several strategies, such as using 3D carbon fillers, [7,8] hybrid fillers, [7,33,34] constructing segregated network structures, [35][36][37] 3D printing [38][39][40][41][42] have been proposed to overcome these challenges. For instance, Ke et al [7] reported a thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) composite with balanced properties by using hybrid fillers of branched carbon nanotubes (CNS) and graphene nanoplatelets (GNP) reaching a gauge factor (G F ) of 144 at strain of 50%, four times that of the control nanocomposites with only CNS.…”

“…A commercially available thermoplastic polyurethane synthesized with polycaprolactone polyols and p-phenylene diisocyanates was used in this work. [7,8] Carbon nanostructures (flake, 70 µm long, 10 µm thick and ≈9 nm nanotube diameters) were provided by Applied Nanostructured Solutions LLC (Lockheed Martin Corporation, MD, US). Ethanol, THF, and DMF purchased from Fisher Scientific (Hampton, NH, USA) were used as received.…”

“…Therefore, several strategies, such as using 3D carbon fillers, hybrid fillers, constructing segregated network structures, 3D printing have been proposed to overcome these challenges. For instance, Ke et al reported a thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) composite with balanced properties by using hybrid fillers of branched carbon nanotubes (CNS) and graphene nanoplatelets (GNP) reaching a gauge factor ( G F ) of 144 at strain of 50%, four times that of the control nanocomposites with only CNS. Sang et al, developed an interface design strategy inspired by the “brick‐wall” structure, that is, a segregated structure where the fillers are locked at the interface of the polymer, for the fabrication of strain sensors.…”

“…[1] The state-of-the-art conductive elastomer composite (CEC) strain sensors have been pushing forward the recent evolution of Internet of Things, due to their exceptional properties, such as high sensitivity [2,3] and excellent flexibility and stretchability. [4][5][6][7] These versatile sensors generally involve the formation of electrically conductive networks (built by the conductive fillers) throughout an insulated, flexible polymeric matrix [8][9][10][11] and can be fabricated by melt-compounding, [12][13][14][15] solution mixing, [16][17][18] and surface coating/implanting. [19,20] Such CECs-based piezoresistive sensors have shown great potential applications for human healthcare and therapeutics, [21][22][23][24] human-machine interfacing for soft robotics, [25,26] as well as real-time structural health monitoring in structural parts and constructions.…”

Spray‐Assisted Microwave Welding of Thermoplastics Using Carbon Nanostructures with Enabled Health Monitoring

“…However, presently there is a need for a cost effective, scalable approach to incorporate CNT-based materials as susceptor in MW welding. This article considers the use of branched CNTs known as CNS, which were found to offer percolation at lower loading contents [28]. The percolation is expected to play an important role for achieving a reproducible and uniform heating during hybrid MW welding.…”