Carbon Nanotube-Polymer Composites for Sensor Applications

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have many distinct and superlative mechanical, electrical and thermal, properties that have been exploited to develop variety of commercial, industrial and scientific applications. In the recent past decade, it has been shown that combining the intrinsically high aspect ratio (micrometer length/nanometer diameter) CNTs as fillers in polymer matrices may have further advantages for various applications. The CNTs besides being widely applied as reinforcement for enhancing the mechanical properties of polymers, their application also can extend the electrical conductance of insulating, or conducting polymers. The conductive CNT-polymer composites can be manipulated for sensing various entities such as gas/vapour, strain, temperature, pressure, and fluid flow. Similarly, in conjunction with optically active, bio sensitive or piezo resistive polymers, the sensing functionality for such CNT-polymers can also be advantageous. Indeed, the CNT-polymer composites for sensor applications have emerged as an active area of research and development for next generation sensors. In this article, a review of recent developments in conductive CNT-polymer composite material systems, their properties and applications for sensors are presented, with emphasis on composite systems for   gas- sensors, strain sensors and infra-red sensors