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Coco Stretch: Strain Sensors Based on Natural Coconut Oil and Carbon Black Filled Elastomers
Author(s) -
Lugoda Pasindu,
Costa Júlio C.,
GarciaGarcia Leonardo A.,
Pouryazdan Arash,
Jocys Zygimantas,
Spina Filippo,
Salvage Jonathan,
Roggen Daniel,
Münzenrieder Niko
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
advanced materials technologies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.184
H-Index - 42
ISSN - 2365-709X
DOI - 10.1002/admt.202000780
Subject(s) - materials science , elastomer , carbon black , gauge factor , composite material , soft robotics , resistive touchscreen , percolation (cognitive psychology) , suspension (topology) , biocompatible material , nanotechnology , fabrication , biomedical engineering , natural rubber , computer science , actuator , medicine , alternative medicine , mathematics , pathology , artificial intelligence , neuroscience , homotopy , pure mathematics , computer vision , biology
A biocompatible inexpensive strain sensor constituting of an elastomer filled with natural coconut oil (CNO) and carbon black (CB) is presented here. Strain sensors are widely utilized for applications in human activity recognition, health monitoring, and soft robotics. Given that these sensors are envisioned to be present in a plethora of fields, it is important that they are low cost, reliable, biocompatible, and eco‐friendly. This work demonstrates that CNO can be used to create conductive percolation network in elastomers, without the necessity for harmful chemicals or expensive machinery. The sensor has a gauge factor of 0.77 ± 0.01, and the sensing material has a porous morphology filled with an oily suspension formed of CNO and CB. Results indicate that the liquid filled porous structure can improve the reliability of these resistive strain sensors in comparison to sensors fabricated utilizing commonly used non‐polar solvents such as heptane. Consequently, the sensor demonstrates a hysteresis of only 2.41% at 200% strain over 250 stretch/release cycles. Finally, to demonstrate the potential of this fabrication technique, a functionalized glove is developed and used to detect wrist motion. These easily manufacturable and cost‐effective sensors enable wearable on‐skin ergonomic intervention systems with minimal impact on the environment.