Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotube Filled Conductive Elastomers: Materials and Application to Micro Transducers

We report a detailed study investigating the use of multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWNT) filled elastomers to enable sensitive and yet robust MEMS devices. This work is contrasted with previous work using carbon black filling, showing an 8-fold improvement in performance through the use of MWNT. The percolation behavior of MWNT in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and polyurethane (PU) elastomers is presented. We have also developed and characterized two devices: (1) MWNT-based force sensitive resistors (FSRs), analogous to polymer piezoresistors; (2) robust collapsible capacitive tactile sensors using soft conductive elastomers.