Carbon Nanofiber Pressure Transducer

The electrical properties of Carbon Nanofibers and Carbon Nanotubes (CNF/CNT) make them suitable candidates for use in pressure transducer applications. The goal of this research is to engineer Carbon Nanotubes on Fiberglass Cloth with controlled CNF/CNT diameter and spacing in a way that resistivity can be measured as a function of pressure. For the Carbon Nanotube growth the major factors that were controlled are: temperature, catalyst, and carbon source. Current experimentation used temperature ranges from 350 to 750 degrees Celsius, Nickel or Iron was used as a catalyst, and Ethylene gas was used as the Carbon source over different time intervals ranging from 15 to 90 minutes. Fiberglass Cloth and catalyst samples were prepared utilizing diverse methods. Synthesis process for iron involved evaporation of a Nano-metric layer heated to temperatures ranging from 600 to 800 degrees Celsius in order to allow the Iron to agglomerate into particles. Synthesis process for Nickel consisted of 3 different methods of deposition: Impregnation of direct Ethanol-Nickel sonicated mixture deposition to fiberglass cloth, Ethanol-Nickel mixture direct deposition onto fiberglass cloth by spray, and vaporization of Ethanol-Nickel employing a liquid vaporizer channeled to fiberglass cloth through Nitrogen gas in an enclosed environment. Characterization was conducted using x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and pressure testing.