Fabrication and characterization of physical and mechanical properties of carbon nanotubes—graphene-based sandwich composite pressure sensor

Abstract

In this work, piezoresistive properties of graphene-multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWC-NTs) composites are investigated, characterized, and compared. Sandwich-type composite piezoresis-tive pressure-sensitive sensors (Ag/Graphene-MWCNT/Ag) with the same diameters, but different fabrication pressures and thicknesses were fabricated using the mortar and pestle/hydraulic press technique. To produce low-electrical-resistance contacts, both sides of the composite sensors were painted with silver (Ag) paste. All the sensors showed reductions in the direct current (DC) resistance ‘R’ with an increment in external uniaxial applied pressure. However, it was observed that higher fabrication pressure led to a lower resistance value of the composite, while the thicker samples give lower electrical conductivity and higher resistance than the thinner samples. The experimental data for all composite pressure sensors were in excellent agreement with the simulated results.