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Polyaniline/multi-walled carbon nanotube composites for structural vibration damping and strain sensing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 October 2016

Weiwei Lin
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199, USA
Yonatan Rotenberg
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199, USA
Kevin P. Ward
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199, USA
Hadi Fekrmandi
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199, USA
Cesar Levy*
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199, USA
*
a) Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: levyez@fiu.edu

Abstract

Polyaniline (PANI)/11% Multi-carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) nanocomposites sensors were synthesized through an in situ polymerization method. Frits compression method was adopted to make PANI/MWCNT. Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) tests results showed that this technique produced a coating of PANI onto the MWCNT, which indicated that CNT were well dispersed in the polymer matrix. Several tests were run to evaluate the sensor's capabilities. The free end vibration test results showed that the double sided attachment of the sensor had higher damping ratio values than single sided attachment. Also, damping ratios were higher when the sensor was placed at the clamped end. Further, the strain sensing properties of PANI/MWCNT sensors were compared with the conventional foil strain gage. The dynamic sensing test results showed that over the range of 10–1000 Hz, the PANI/MWCNT composite sensor was consistently superior to the traditional foil strain gage for sensing purposes.

Information

Type
JMR Early Career Scholars in Materials Science Annual Issue
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2016
Figure 0

FIG. 1. (a) The frit compression system for making PANI/11% wt MWCNT nanocomposite films. System consists of A: cuboid; B: plungers; C: polypropylene frits and D: composites suspension chamber; (b) photo image of PANI/MWCNT nanocomposites; (c) the schematic image of 289 and 334 N force applied to plungers measured by FlexiForce adapter. The adapter's load measurements have a ±3% error.

Figure 1

FIG. 2. Schematic images for sample attachment. The dimension of samples, Al beams and the locations where samples were attached; the locations of sample side, #, and free end side, *, where the beam was clamped; and also the directions and lengths for both cutting and clamping.

Figure 2

FIG. 3. TEM images of (a) pure MWCNT and (b) PANI/11% MWCNT.

Figure 3

FIG. 4. SEM image of (a) pure MWCNT, (b) pure PANI and (c) PANI/11% MWCNT composite films.

Figure 4

FIG. 5. Damping ratio comparison between 289 and 334 N compression force of PANI/MWCNT composites when clamped on the free end side. Error bars are provided for each test. Force apparatus has a ±3% error.

Figure 5

FIG. 6. Damping ratios of single side attached PANI/MWCNT clamped on the sample side and on the free end side. Error bars are provided for each test.

Figure 6

FIG. 7. Damping ratios of both sides attached PANI/MWCNT clamped on the free end side and on the sample side.

Figure 7

FIG. 8. The relationship of loss factor (η) and beam coverage L1/L between single side and double sided attachment of the PANI/MWCNT sample for both clamping conditions.

Figure 8

FIG. 9. Frequency response functions of PANI/MWCNT sensor and foil strain gage for 20–1000 Hz. (a) PANI/MWCNT—Magnitude: 418.0301 mV. (b) Foil strain gage—Magnitude: 0.498347 mV. (c) PANI/MWCNT—Magnitude: 28.27814 mV. (d) Foil strain gage—Magnitude: 0.03146 mV. (e) PANI/MWCNT—Magnitude: 6.614911 mV. (f) Foil strain gage—Magnitude: 0.058299 mV. (g) PANI/MWCNT—Magnitude: 0.059545 mV. (h) Foil strain gage—Magnitude: 0.063547 mV.

Figure 9

FIG. 10. Superposition of the frequency response functions of the PANI/MWCNT sensor and foil strain gage for low and high frequency. Graphs represent a superposition of the previous graphs to indicate the superior sensitivity of the PANI/MWCNT in the 10–1000 Hz range. (a) FRF—PANI/MWCNT sensor (10–1000 Hz). (b) FRF—Foil strain gage (10–1000 Hz).

Figure 10

FIG. 11. PANI/MWCNT sensor and strain gage drift test. Drift trend lines for typical PANI/MWCNT sensor and strain gage. Vertical scale is in mV; horizontal scale is in minutes.

Figure 11

FIG. 12. Drift test for PANI/MWCNT (sensor 3) and drift test for strain gage.

Figure 12

TABLE I. Trend line slopes for Fig. 11.

Figure 13

FIG. 13. Voltage-strain curves for the PANI/MWCNT sensor. Note initial linearity of the sensor then marked change in slope in which there is an apparent step, then linear once again at much lower slope.

Figure 14

FIG. 14. Voltage-strain curve for strain gage shows linear voltage-strain behavior until unload and returns to same start value.

Figure 15

TABLE II. Slopes and intercepts for the PANI/MWCNT sensor given in Fig. 13.