Effects of carbon black content on the properties of silicone rubber piezoresistive materials

Silicone rubber piezoresistive materials were prepared with methyl-vinyl silicone rubber as matrix and high conductivity nanosized carbon black as conductive filler.The electrical properties and mechanical properties of the prepared piezoresistive materials were characterized,and the effects of carbon black content on the electrical properties,compressive stress relaxation behavior and resistance creep behavior of the piezoresistive materials were investigated.The results show that the carbon black content shows significant effects on the properties of the silicone rubber piezoresistive materials.When 14%-16%(mass fraction) carbon black is introduced,the obtained silicone rubber piezoresistive materials show a good performance: its load-resistance curves are highly consistent even after 20 loading-unloading cycles.This indicates that there is a potential to use this kind of piezoresistive materials for force sensors.