Carbon black nanocomposite piezoresistive microcantilevers with reduced percolation threshold

Abstract

For a polymeric nanocomposite based stress sensor it is always desirable to get conductivity at very low percolation threshold, which is the critical concentration of conductive filler necessary to initiate a continuous conductive network. We describe here a piezoresistive carbon black (CB)-polymeric nanocomposite with reduced percolation threshold, having good mechanical strength and photopatternability. Device application of the nanocomposite with ~4 wt% of CB is demonstrated by fabrication of piezoresistive microcantilever for stress sensing.