Electro‐mechanical sensors based on conductive hybrid nanocomposites

This work demonstrates the development of electro-mechanical sensors using a generic methodology based on elastomeric conductive nanocomposites. A fast and facile fabrication route is used to construct a unique architecture based on polymerization of aniline in the presence of dissolved styrene-isoprene-styrene (SIS) tri-block copolymer and carbon nanotubes (CNT), followed by a precipitation–filtration step. The resulting nanocomposites form a segregated network of conductive pathways containing CNT. The percolation threshold calculated for aniline and CNT is 0.8 and 0.2 wt%, respectively. The electro-mechanical sensors have demonstrated a stable and fast dynamic response with a uniform electrical amplitude to the applied strain cycles for two diverse polymer matrices. An accurate dynamic behavior, where the maximum peak of relative electrical resistance coincides with the maximum strain peak, was achieved. The relatively high calculated sensitivity factor (gauge factor) demonstrates that the nanocomposites developed possess good sensing performance. The unique method used for the preparation of SIS/CNT/polyaniline nanocomposites, results in new strain sensors and it can be utilized for evaluation of constructive damage in different composite structures. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.