Characterization of Conductive Carbon Nanotubes/Polymer Composites for Stretchable Sensors and Transducers

The increasing interest in stretchable conductive composite materials, that can be versatile and suitable for wide-ranging application, has sparked a growing demand for studies of scalable fabrication techniques and specifically tailored geometries. Thanks to the combination of the conductivity and robustness of carbon nanotube (CNT) materials with the viscoelastic properties of polymer films, in particular their stretchability, “surface composites” made of a CNT on polymeric films are a promising way to obtain a low-cost, conductive, elastic, moldable, and patternable material. The use of polymers selected for specific applications, however, requires targeted studies to deeply understand the interface interactions between a CNT and the surface of such polymer films, and in particular the stability and durability of a CNT grafting onto the polymer itself. Here, we present an investigation of the interface properties for a selected group of polymer film substrates with different viscoelastic properties by means of a series of different and complementary experimental techniques. Specifically, we studied the interaction of a single-wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) deposited on two couples of different polymeric substrates, each one chosen as representative of thermoplastic polymers (i.e., low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and polypropylene (PP)) and thermosetting elastomers (i.e., polyisoprene (PI) and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)), respectively. Our results demonstrate that the characteristics of the interface significantly differ for the two classes of polymers with a deeper penetration (up to about 100 μm) into the polymer bulk for the thermosetting substrates. Consequently, the resistance per unit length varies in different ranges, from 1–10 kΩ/cm for typical thermoplastic composite devices (30 μm thick and 2 mm wide) to 0.5–3 MΩ/cm for typical thermosetting elastomer devices (150 μm thick and 2 mm wide). For these reasons, the composites show the different mechanical and electrical responses, therefore suggesting different areas of application of the devices based on such materials.