Rollo Gennaro, Ronca Alfredo, Cerruti Pierfrancesco, Xia Hesheng, Gruppioni Emanuele, Lavorgna Marino
Institute of Polymers, Composites and Biomaterials, National Research Council, Via Previati, 1, 23900 Lecco, Italy.
Institute of Polymers, Composites and Biomaterials, National Research Council Viale J.F. Kennedy, 80125 Naples, Italy.
Polymers (Basel). 2023 Nov 14;15(22):4404. doi: 10.3390/polym15224404.
Recently, piezoresistive sensors made by 3D printing have gained considerable interest in the field of wearable electronics due to their ultralight nature, high compressibility, robustness, and excellent electromechanical properties. In this work, building on previous results on the Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) of porous systems based on thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and graphene (GE)/carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) as carbon conductive fillers, the effect of variables such as thickness, diameter, and porosity of 3D printed disks is thoroughly studied with the aim of optimizing their piezoresistive performance. The resulting system is a disk with a diameter of 13 mm and a thickness of 0.3 mm endowed with optimal reproducibility, sensitivity, and linearity of the electrical signal. Dynamic compressive strength tests conducted on the proposed 3D printed sensors reveal a linear piezoresistive response in the range of 0.1-2 N compressive load. In addition, the optimized system is characterized at a high load frequency (2 Hz), and the stability and sensitivity of the electrical signal are evaluated. Finally, an application test demonstrates the ability of this system to be used as a real-time wearable pressure sensor for applications in prosthetics, consumer products, and personalized health-monitoring systems.
最近，通过3D打印制造的压阻式传感器因其超轻的性质、高压缩性、坚固性和优异的机电性能，在可穿戴电子领域引起了广泛关注。在这项工作中，基于先前关于以热塑性聚氨酯（TPU）和石墨烯（GE）/多壁碳纳米管（MWCNT）作为碳导电填料的多孔系统的选择性激光烧结（SLS）的研究成果，深入研究了3D打印圆盘的厚度、直径和孔隙率等变量对其压阻性能的影响，旨在优化其压阻性能。所得系统是一个直径为13毫米、厚度为0.3毫米的圆盘，具有最佳的电信号重现性、灵敏度和线性度。对所提出的3D打印传感器进行的动态抗压强度测试表明，在0.1 - 2 N的压缩载荷范围内呈现线性压阻响应。此外，对优化后的系统在高负载频率（2 Hz）下进行了表征，并评估了电信号的稳定性和灵敏度。最后，应用测试证明了该系统能够用作实时可穿戴压力传感器，应用于假肢、消费产品和个性化健康监测系统。
