Micro-mechanical bending process of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes for fabricating displacement sensor /
In recent years, vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (CNTs) known as CNT forests has become an interesting area of research because of their remarkable material properties. Thus, researchers have ventured into developing different sensing applications using CNT forests because of their remarkable el...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Kuala Lumpur :
Kulliyyah of Engineering, International Islamic University Malaysia,
2016
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://studentrepo.iium.edu.my/handle/123456789/4974 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Summary: | In recent years, vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (CNTs) known as CNT forests has become an interesting area of research because of their remarkable material properties. Thus, researchers have ventured into developing different sensing applications using CNT forests because of their remarkable electrical, mechanical and optical properties. However, development of a flexible and miniaturized displacement sensor by manipulating the optical property of the CNT forest is yet to be fully realized. Current displacement sensor available in the market are bigger in size and not very flexible. In this research CNT forest has been processed to have alternative array of optically reflective and dark surface, which can be used as compact displacement sensor. To achieve this goal, Micro Mechanical Bending (M2B) process was studied and optimized to fabricate such sensor. In this study, a systematic method was followed to model the M2B method using Response Surface Methodology. A central composite design (CCD) was chosen for three different process parameters such as tool rotational speed (S), lateral speed (V) and step size (D) to see their effect while M2B processing on vertically align carbon nanotubes (VACNTs). This method was adopted to predict the optimized surface roughness of the M2B processed VACNTs to identify the interactions of each process factor to find out best parameter for sensor fabrication. Along the way, different characterizations were conducted to analyse the results of M2B processed CNT forest samples using field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDS) spectroscopy, Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and optical microscopy. Depending on all the outcomes of the characterizations above, the best parameter was found to be 2000rpm (tool rotational speed), 1mm/min (lateral speed), and 1 µm (step size) with best dimensional resolution and minimum surface roughness 15 nm. This parameter was further employed to fabricate a sensor on VACNTs by M2B technique having three channel of 300 μm width and 60 μm total step size. Eventually, the sensor was tested experimentally. The outcomes revealed that the sensor can produce pulse as per channel width of the sensor according the bare and M2B processed CNT forests. From the output pulses it was shown that the sensor can measure 1800 μm displacement successfully. This type of sensor is to be highly regarded due to its miniaturized in size, straightforward measuring process, less noise and cost effectiveness. |
|---|---|
| Physical Description: | xviii, 94 leaves : illustrations ; 30cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (leaves 81-86). |