Investigation of interactions between high pulsed ultraviolet lasers and composite graphene/AgNWs films

To improve the joining strength and electrical conductivity, this study aims to develop an ultraviolet (UV) laser annealing to join AgNWs coated on polyethyene terephthalate substrates. The developed graphene/AgNWsbased strain sensors with UV laser-ablated electrodes were highly promising for in situ structural health monitoring of wind turbine blades. After the UV laser annealing, the rate of resistance changes of laser-annealed AgNWs had a minimum value of-2.92 +/- 1.0 % when the laser power set at 0.4 W. Moreover, the sheet resistances of laser-ablated graphene/AgNWs films increased with increasing the laser areal fluences. The laser areal fluence of 10.88 J/cm(2), pulse repetition frequency of 200 kHz, scan velocity of 400 mm/s, and line scan pitch of 0.02 mm were used to ablate the graphene/AgNWs electrode structure of strain sensors. During the bending test, the graphene/AgNWs-based strain sensors with an electrode width of 0.1 mm had the largest gauge factor of 13.47. Furthermore, the graphene/AgNWs-based strain sensors demonstrated an excellent response and recovery during the real-time bending test of wind turbine blades.

Automated summary

This study focuses on developing UV laser annealing technology to enhance the joining strength and electrical conductivity of silver nanowires on substrates, leading to promising graphene/silver nanowire-based strain sensors for structural health monitoring of wind turbine blades. It was found that the resistance change rate of laser-annealed silver nanowires was minimized at -2.92 +/- 1.0 % with a laser power of 0.4 W, and sensors with electrode width of 0.1 mm exhibited the highest gauge factor during bending tests.