Strain sensing skin-like film using zinc oxide nanostructures grown on PDMS and reduced graphene oxide

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	Structural Monitoring and Maintenance Volume 4, Number 2, June 2017, pages 107-113 DOI: https://doi.org/10.12989/smm.2017.4.2.107
	open access download PDF Strain sensing skin-like film using zinc oxide nanostructures grown on PDMS and reduced graphene oxide
	Tejus Satish, Kaushik Balakrishnan, Hemtej Gullapalli, Satish Nagarajaiah, Robert Vajtai and Pulickel M. Ajayan
Abstract
	In this paper, we present a strain-sensitive composite skin-like film made up of piezoresistive zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods embedded in a flexible poly(dimethylsiloxane) substrate, with added reduced graphene oxide (rGO) to facilitate connections between the nanorod clusters and increase strain sensitivity. Preparation of the composite is described in detail. Cyclic strain sensing tests are conducted. Experiments indicate that the resulting ZnO-PDMS/rGO composite film is strain-sensitive and thus capable of sensing cycling strain accurately. As such, it has the potential to be molded on to a structure (civil, mechanical, aerospace, or biological) in order to provide a strain sensing skin.
Key Words
	strain sensing; flexible; skin; poly(dimethylsiloxane); reduced graphene oxide; zinc oxide
Address
	Tejus Satish: Department of Biochemistry, Rice University, Houston, Texas, USA 77005 Kaushik Balakrishnan, Hemtej Gullapalli, Satish Nagarajaiah, Robert Vajtai and Pulickel M. Ajayan: Department of Materials Science and Nanoengineering, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA 77005