Piezoresistivity and Mechanical Behavior of Metal-polymer Composites under Uniaxial Pressure

Abstract

The piezoresistive response of copper and nickel particles reinforced polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) polymer, forming metal-polymer composites were investigated under uniaxial pressure. Electrical and mechanical properties of composite samples containing Cu and Ni conductive fillers at different loadings in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) polymer matrix have been presented here. Well-dispersed metal-polymer composites were fabricated by a wet mixing route. The resulting Cu-PDMS and Ni-PDMS composite samples show the resistivity changes by more than 2 and 10 orders of magnitude around 4MPa pressure, respectively. The mechanical tests have shown that these composite samples have high stress sensitivity which makes them good piezoresistive candidates for practical applications.