PIEZORESISTIVE SENSORS BASED ON PVDF-HFP REINFORCED WITH GNPs FOR HEALTH MONITORING APPLICATIONS

• Published in: E-journal of Nondestructive Testing 2024-07, Vol.29 (7)
• Main Authors: Díaz, Víctor, FERNÁNDEZ, Xoan Xosé, Sánchez, Mario, Ureña fernández, Alejandro
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1435-4934; 1435-4934
• DOI: 10.58286/29777

Wearable technology has become increasingly popular in recent years. Wearable sensors are systems made of flexible substrates which good adaptability to human motion monitoring. In parituclar, they allow doctors to obtain real-time data from patients by detecting small changes in baseline values over time, such as the movement of various joints or muscles, heart activity, breathing, and even sweat. In this regard, polymers can offer good flexibility, stretchability, and long-term reliability, which, together with the possibility of modifying their electrical response with conductive nanofillers, makes them promising for the fabrication of this kind of sensors, as their electrical conductivity changes with applied strain. In this work, piezoresistive sensors based on poly(vinylidene fluoride-hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF-HFP) reinforced with graphene nanoplatelets via solvent casting are presented. Here, both the electrical and electromechanical responses are evaluated as a function of different processing conditions, more specifically, sonication time and evaporation temperature. Then, several successful proof-of-concept tests have been carried out from human motion monitoting to pressure sensing applications, with very high sensitivities, being very promising for this kind of applications.