Coco Stretch: Strain Sensors Based on Natural Coconut Oil and Carbon Black Filled Elastomers

Pasindu Lugoda; Júlio C. Costa; Leonardo A. Garcia-Garcia; Arash Pouryazdan; Zygimantas Jocys; Filippo Spina; Jonathan Salvage; Daniel Roggen; Niko Münzenrieder

doi:10.1002/admt.202000780

Coco Stretch: Strain Sensors Based on Natural Coconut Oil and Carbon Black Filled Elastomers

Pasindu Lugoda, Júlio C. Costa, Leonardo A. Garcia-Garcia, Arash Pouryazdan, Zygimantas Jocys, Filippo Spina, Jonathan Salvage, Daniel Roggen, Niko Münzenrieder

University of Brighton

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

A biocompatible inexpensive strain sensor constituting of an elastomer filled with natural coconut oil (CNO) and carbon black (CB) is presented here. Strain sensors are widely utilized for applications in human activity recognition, health monitoring, and soft robotics. Given that these sensors are envisioned to be present in a plethora of fields, it is important that they are low cost, reliable, biocompatible, and eco-friendly. This work demonstrates that CNO can be used to create conductive percolation network in elastomers, without the necessity for harmful chemicals or expensive machinery. The sensor has a gauge factor of 0.77 ± 0.01, and the sensing material has a porous morphology filled with an oily suspension formed of CNO and CB. Results indicate that the liquid filled porous structure can improve the reliability of these resistive strain sensors in comparison to sensors fabricated utilizing commonly used non-polar solvents such as heptane. Consequently, the sensor demonstrates a hysteresis of only 2.41% at 200% strain over 250 stretch/release cycles. Finally, to demonstrate the potential of this fabrication technique, a functionalized glove is developed and used to detect wrist motion. These easily manufacturable and cost-effective sensors enable wearable on-skin ergonomic intervention systems with minimal impact on the environment.

Original language	English
Article number	2000780
Number of pages	9
Journal	Advanced Materials Technologies
Volume	6
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/admt.202000780
Publication status	Published - 8 Feb 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
P.L., N.M., and J.C.C. conceived and designed the experiments; P.L. synthesized the material; P.L. and L.A.G.‐G prepared the samples and the sensors; P.L. and J.C.C. performed the experiments; P.L. and J.C.C. analyzed the data; J.S. did the SEM imaging of the materials; Z.S. and P.L. conducted the wrist motion experiment and analyzed the data; N.M. provided expertise in flexible electronics; D.R. provided expertise in data analysis; P.L., J.C.C., L.A.G.‐G., and A.P. wrote the paper with input from all authors; D.R. and N.M. supervised the work. The authors will like to thank Dr. Martina Costa Angeli for assisting with the experiments. The authors also thank Kalana Marasinghe for his assistance with the figures. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. This work was partially funded by EPSRC, GCRF, and NIHR, under the contact number: EP/R013837/1 (SmartSensOtics).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Wiley-VCH GmbH

Keywords

carbon black
cocos nucifera oil
eco-friendly sensors
strain sensors
wearable devices

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10.1002/admt.202000780

Cite this

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title = "Coco Stretch: Strain Sensors Based on Natural Coconut Oil and Carbon Black Filled Elastomers",

abstract = "A biocompatible inexpensive strain sensor constituting of an elastomer filled with natural coconut oil (CNO) and carbon black (CB) is presented here. Strain sensors are widely utilized for applications in human activity recognition, health monitoring, and soft robotics. Given that these sensors are envisioned to be present in a plethora of fields, it is important that they are low cost, reliable, biocompatible, and eco-friendly. This work demonstrates that CNO can be used to create conductive percolation network in elastomers, without the necessity for harmful chemicals or expensive machinery. The sensor has a gauge factor of 0.77 ± 0.01, and the sensing material has a porous morphology filled with an oily suspension formed of CNO and CB. Results indicate that the liquid filled porous structure can improve the reliability of these resistive strain sensors in comparison to sensors fabricated utilizing commonly used non-polar solvents such as heptane. Consequently, the sensor demonstrates a hysteresis of only 2.41% at 200% strain over 250 stretch/release cycles. Finally, to demonstrate the potential of this fabrication technique, a functionalized glove is developed and used to detect wrist motion. These easily manufacturable and cost-effective sensors enable wearable on-skin ergonomic intervention systems with minimal impact on the environment.",

keywords = "carbon black, cocos nucifera oil, eco-friendly sensors, strain sensors, wearable devices",

author = "Pasindu Lugoda and Costa, {J{\'u}lio C.} and Garcia-Garcia, {Leonardo A.} and Arash Pouryazdan and Zygimantas Jocys and Filippo Spina and Jonathan Salvage and Daniel Roggen and Niko M{\"u}nzenrieder",

note = "Funding Information: P.L., N.M., and J.C.C. conceived and designed the experiments; P.L. synthesized the material; P.L. and L.A.G.‐G prepared the samples and the sensors; P.L. and J.C.C. performed the experiments; P.L. and J.C.C. analyzed the data; J.S. did the SEM imaging of the materials; Z.S. and P.L. conducted the wrist motion experiment and analyzed the data; N.M. provided expertise in flexible electronics; D.R. provided expertise in data analysis; P.L., J.C.C., L.A.G.‐G., and A.P. wrote the paper with input from all authors; D.R. and N.M. supervised the work. The authors will like to thank Dr. Martina Costa Angeli for assisting with the experiments. The authors also thank Kalana Marasinghe for his assistance with the figures. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. This work was partially funded by EPSRC, GCRF, and NIHR, under the contact number: EP/R013837/1 (SmartSensOtics). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2020 Wiley-VCH GmbH",

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doi = "10.1002/admt.202000780",

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AU - Lugoda, Pasindu

AU - Costa, Júlio C.

AU - Garcia-Garcia, Leonardo A.

AU - Pouryazdan, Arash

AU - Jocys, Zygimantas

AU - Spina, Filippo

AU - Salvage, Jonathan

AU - Roggen, Daniel

AU - Münzenrieder, Niko

N1 - Funding Information: P.L., N.M., and J.C.C. conceived and designed the experiments; P.L. synthesized the material; P.L. and L.A.G.‐G prepared the samples and the sensors; P.L. and J.C.C. performed the experiments; P.L. and J.C.C. analyzed the data; J.S. did the SEM imaging of the materials; Z.S. and P.L. conducted the wrist motion experiment and analyzed the data; N.M. provided expertise in flexible electronics; D.R. provided expertise in data analysis; P.L., J.C.C., L.A.G.‐G., and A.P. wrote the paper with input from all authors; D.R. and N.M. supervised the work. The authors will like to thank Dr. Martina Costa Angeli for assisting with the experiments. The authors also thank Kalana Marasinghe for his assistance with the figures. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. This work was partially funded by EPSRC, GCRF, and NIHR, under the contact number: EP/R013837/1 (SmartSensOtics). Publisher Copyright: © 2020 Wiley-VCH GmbH

PY - 2021/2/8

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N2 - A biocompatible inexpensive strain sensor constituting of an elastomer filled with natural coconut oil (CNO) and carbon black (CB) is presented here. Strain sensors are widely utilized for applications in human activity recognition, health monitoring, and soft robotics. Given that these sensors are envisioned to be present in a plethora of fields, it is important that they are low cost, reliable, biocompatible, and eco-friendly. This work demonstrates that CNO can be used to create conductive percolation network in elastomers, without the necessity for harmful chemicals or expensive machinery. The sensor has a gauge factor of 0.77 ± 0.01, and the sensing material has a porous morphology filled with an oily suspension formed of CNO and CB. Results indicate that the liquid filled porous structure can improve the reliability of these resistive strain sensors in comparison to sensors fabricated utilizing commonly used non-polar solvents such as heptane. Consequently, the sensor demonstrates a hysteresis of only 2.41% at 200% strain over 250 stretch/release cycles. Finally, to demonstrate the potential of this fabrication technique, a functionalized glove is developed and used to detect wrist motion. These easily manufacturable and cost-effective sensors enable wearable on-skin ergonomic intervention systems with minimal impact on the environment.

AB - A biocompatible inexpensive strain sensor constituting of an elastomer filled with natural coconut oil (CNO) and carbon black (CB) is presented here. Strain sensors are widely utilized for applications in human activity recognition, health monitoring, and soft robotics. Given that these sensors are envisioned to be present in a plethora of fields, it is important that they are low cost, reliable, biocompatible, and eco-friendly. This work demonstrates that CNO can be used to create conductive percolation network in elastomers, without the necessity for harmful chemicals or expensive machinery. The sensor has a gauge factor of 0.77 ± 0.01, and the sensing material has a porous morphology filled with an oily suspension formed of CNO and CB. Results indicate that the liquid filled porous structure can improve the reliability of these resistive strain sensors in comparison to sensors fabricated utilizing commonly used non-polar solvents such as heptane. Consequently, the sensor demonstrates a hysteresis of only 2.41% at 200% strain over 250 stretch/release cycles. Finally, to demonstrate the potential of this fabrication technique, a functionalized glove is developed and used to detect wrist motion. These easily manufacturable and cost-effective sensors enable wearable on-skin ergonomic intervention systems with minimal impact on the environment.

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KW - wearable devices

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Coco Stretch: Strain Sensors Based on Natural Coconut Oil and Carbon Black Filled Elastomers

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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