Self-reinforcing graphene coatings on 3D printed elastomers for flexible radio frequency antennas and strain sensors

被引：27
作者：
Li X. [1 ]
Honari M.M. [2 ]
Fu Y. [1 ]
Kumar A. [1 ]
Saghlatoon H. [2 ]
Mousavi P. [2 ]
Chung H.-J. [1 ]
机构：
[1] Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, T6G 1H9, AB
[2] Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, T6G 1H9, AB
来源：
Flexible and Printed Electronics | 2017年 / 2卷 / 03期
基金：
加拿大创新基金会; 加拿大自然科学与工程研究理事会;
关键词：
Conductive ink; Flexible electronic supplementary material for this article is available online; Radio frequency antenna; Reduced graphene oxide; Strain sensor;
D O I：
10.1088/2058-8585/aa73c9
中图分类号：
学科分类号：
摘要：
The emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT) necessitates the development of electronic components with various form factors and mechanical properties. 3D printing is an effective tool to realize objects with arbitrary form factors. Various 3D printable materials have recently been commercialized; among them, stretchable materials are particularly useful in the IoT because they enable adaptability in the dimensional change of the electronics. Most of these stretchable materials are, however, not electrically conductive; conductive coating can enable the functionality. Here, we propose a selfreinforcing conductive coating strategy, which reduced graphene oxide (RGO) self-assembles to wrap graphene nanoflakes (GNF) as a conductive binder that can also achieve mechanical integrity. The conductivity of the GNF-RGO coating reaches 4.47 × 104 Sm-1. To demonstrate the potential applications of the GNF-RGO coating, applying the coating on 3D printed porous elastomers enabled flexible radio frequency (RF) antennas and strain sensors. The RF antenna shows high radiation efficiency and maintains excellent performance under bending conditions. The coating also produces a strain sensor with a gauge factor of ∼ 13 up to 40% of strain. We foresee that the electrically conductive GNF-RGO composite coating can provide versatile functionalization strategy in flexible electronics and in wearable biomedical devices. © 2017 IOP Publishing Ltd.
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