Poly(phenylmethylsiloxane) functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotube/poly(dimethylsiloxane) nanocomposites with high piezoresistivity, low modulus and high conductivity

A high performance of piezoresistive materials can be used to detect the sense of touch. Poly(phenylmethylsiloxane) functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (P-MWCNTs) is introduced into poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) matrix to obtain P-MWCNTs/PDMS nanocomposites with high performance. The P-MWCNTs with core-shell structure exhibits excellent compatibility in chloroform and homogenous dispersion in PDMS matrix, which is the effective method to dramatically improve the electrical, elastic and piezoresistive properties of nanocomposites. Slightly above the percolation threshold (0.74 vol%) content, the P-MWCNTs/PDMS nanocomposites with 0.75 vol% of P-MWCNTs shows high performance of S of 8.09 x 10(- 3) KPa- 1 at finge-sensing regimes (0-100 KPa), low E of 489.50 KPa and high sigma of 1.24 x 10(- 4) S/m. Our work provide a simple, low cost and effective method to prepare high-performance nanocomposites, facilitating the wide applications of piezoresistive materials, especially in the cheap and flexible tactile sensors.