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Arrayed Force Sensors Made of Paper, Elastomer, and Hydrogel Particles

This article presents a sensor for detecting the distribution of forces on a surface. The device with nine buttons consisted of an elastomer-based layer as a touch interface resting on a substrate of patterned metallized paper. The elastomer-based layer included a three-by-three array of deformable,...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Zou, Xiyue, Liang, Tongfen, Lopez, Nastassja, Ahmed, Moustafa, Ajayan, Akshitha, Mazzeo, Aaron D.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6187906/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30400546
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/mi8120356
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author Zou, Xiyue
Liang, Tongfen
Lopez, Nastassja
Ahmed, Moustafa
Ajayan, Akshitha
Mazzeo, Aaron D.
author_facet Zou, Xiyue
Liang, Tongfen
Lopez, Nastassja
Ahmed, Moustafa
Ajayan, Akshitha
Mazzeo, Aaron D.
author_sort Zou, Xiyue
collection PubMed
description This article presents a sensor for detecting the distribution of forces on a surface. The device with nine buttons consisted of an elastomer-based layer as a touch interface resting on a substrate of patterned metallized paper. The elastomer-based layer included a three-by-three array of deformable, hemispherical elements/reliefs, facing down toward an array of interdigitated capacitive sensing units on patterned metallized paper. Each hemispherical element is 20 mm in diameter and 8 mm in height. When a user applied pressure to the elastomer-based layer, the contact area between the hemispherical elements and the interdigitated capacitive sensing units increased with the deformation of the hemispherical elements. To enhance the sensitivity of the sensors, embedded particles of hydrogel in the elastomer-based layer increased the measured electrical responses. The measured capacitance increased because the effective dielectric permittivity of the hydrogel was greater than that of air. Electromechanical characterization verified that the hydrogel-filled elastomer was more sensitive to force at a low range of loads (23.4 pF/N) than elastomer alone without embedded hydrogel (3.4 pF/N), as the hydrogel reduced the effective elastic modulus of the composite material by a factor of seven. A simple demonstration suggests that the force-sensing array has the potential to contribute to wearable and soft robotic devices.
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spelling pubmed-61879062018-11-01 Arrayed Force Sensors Made of Paper, Elastomer, and Hydrogel Particles Zou, Xiyue Liang, Tongfen Lopez, Nastassja Ahmed, Moustafa Ajayan, Akshitha Mazzeo, Aaron D. Micromachines (Basel) Article This article presents a sensor for detecting the distribution of forces on a surface. The device with nine buttons consisted of an elastomer-based layer as a touch interface resting on a substrate of patterned metallized paper. The elastomer-based layer included a three-by-three array of deformable, hemispherical elements/reliefs, facing down toward an array of interdigitated capacitive sensing units on patterned metallized paper. Each hemispherical element is 20 mm in diameter and 8 mm in height. When a user applied pressure to the elastomer-based layer, the contact area between the hemispherical elements and the interdigitated capacitive sensing units increased with the deformation of the hemispherical elements. To enhance the sensitivity of the sensors, embedded particles of hydrogel in the elastomer-based layer increased the measured electrical responses. The measured capacitance increased because the effective dielectric permittivity of the hydrogel was greater than that of air. Electromechanical characterization verified that the hydrogel-filled elastomer was more sensitive to force at a low range of loads (23.4 pF/N) than elastomer alone without embedded hydrogel (3.4 pF/N), as the hydrogel reduced the effective elastic modulus of the composite material by a factor of seven. A simple demonstration suggests that the force-sensing array has the potential to contribute to wearable and soft robotic devices. MDPI 2017-12-08 /pmc/articles/PMC6187906/ /pubmed/30400546 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/mi8120356 Text en © 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Zou, Xiyue
Liang, Tongfen
Lopez, Nastassja
Ahmed, Moustafa
Ajayan, Akshitha
Mazzeo, Aaron D.
Arrayed Force Sensors Made of Paper, Elastomer, and Hydrogel Particles
title Arrayed Force Sensors Made of Paper, Elastomer, and Hydrogel Particles
title_full Arrayed Force Sensors Made of Paper, Elastomer, and Hydrogel Particles
title_fullStr Arrayed Force Sensors Made of Paper, Elastomer, and Hydrogel Particles
title_full_unstemmed Arrayed Force Sensors Made of Paper, Elastomer, and Hydrogel Particles
title_short Arrayed Force Sensors Made of Paper, Elastomer, and Hydrogel Particles
title_sort arrayed force sensors made of paper, elastomer, and hydrogel particles
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6187906/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30400546
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/mi8120356
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AT ahmedmoustafa arrayedforcesensorsmadeofpaperelastomerandhydrogelparticles
AT ajayanakshitha arrayedforcesensorsmadeofpaperelastomerandhydrogelparticles
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