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Influence of rigid segment content on the piezoresistive behavior of multiwall carbon nanotube/segmented polyurethane composites
Author(s) -
LozanoPérez C.,
CauichRodríguez J. V.,
Avilés F.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.44448
Subject(s) - materials science , piezoresistive effect , composite material , carbon nanotube , polyurethane , polymer , ultimate tensile strength , phase (matter) , electrical resistivity and conductivity , deformation (meteorology) , chemistry , organic chemistry , electrical engineering , engineering
Tensile piezoresistive properties of multiwall carbon nanotube (MWCNT)/segmented polyurethane (SPU) composites comprising 15, 30, and 50 wt % rigid segment (RS) contents and 2, 4, and 6 wt % MWCNT contents are investigated. The physicochemical properties of such composites are used to better understand their mechanical and piezoresistive behavior. Infrared spectra shows that for 15 and 30 wt % RS composites the addition of MWCNTs promotes a more structured RS domain which increases the phase separation, while for 50 wt % RS composites the MWCNTs disrupt the RS domains of the polymer with a high phase separation. Overall, MWCNT content has less effect on the phase separation than RS content. The composites with 6 wt % MWCNT content reached electrical conductivities of the order of ∼10 −1 S/m using 15 and 50 wt % RS polymers. Upon deformation, composites with 15 wt % RS and 4 wt % MWCNT achieved changes in electrical resistance of the order of 5000 times their unstrained value, which are outstanding values that can be exploited for applications such as human motion detection. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017 , 134 , 44448.