Environmentally Friendly Flexible Strain Sensor from Waste Cotton Fabrics and Natural Rubber Latex

Polymers

Jin Zhang¹  Xungai Wang²  Bin Tang²  Xinzhu Chen²  Xiongwei Dong²  Jinfeng Wang²  Wu Chen²  Licheng Zhu²  Guangming Cai²  Jing An³ 

[1] Deakin University, Institute for Frontier Materials, Geelong, VIC 3216, Australia;National Engineering Laboratory for Advanced Textile Processing and Clean Production, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan 430073, China;Zhuhai College of Jilin University, School of Chemical Engineering and New Energy Materials, Zhuhai 519041, China;

关键词: natural rubber latex;    cotton;    recycling;    carbonization;    conductive fabric;    strain monitoring;   

DOI  :  10.3390/polym11030404

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

A green approach was successfully developed to fabricate flexible sensors by utilizing carbonized waste cotton fabrics in combination with natural rubber latex. Waste cotton fabrics were firstly carbonized by heat treatment in the nitrogen atmosphere before they were combined with natural rubber latex using three methods, i.e., vacuum bagging, negative pressure adsorption and drop coating. After impregnation with natural rubber, the carbonized cotton maintained the fabric structure and showed good conductivity. More importantly, the electric resistance of the textile composites changed with the tensile strain. The cyclic stretching-releasing tests indicated that the prepared wearable flexible strain sensors were sensitive to strain and stable under cyclic loading. The flexible strain sensor also demonstrated the capability of monitoring human finger and arm motion.

【 授权许可】

Unknown