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Structural health monitoring for polymer composites with surface printed MXene/ink sensitive sensors

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Abstract

In this study, a novel sensor with high sensitivity and linear was prepared based on two-dimensional (2D) material (MXene) and ink, which can be used for deformation and damage monitoring of structural composites. The MXene was efficiently prepared by etching Ti3AlC2 powder with LiF–HCl solution and subsequent vacuum drying. The viscosity and adhesion of MXene/ink composites were controlled by changing the ratio of solvent (dimethyl sulfoxide) to ink. The MXene/ink was printed on the surface of the composite material to avoid forming defects in the composite material. The percolation threshold of the MXene/ink nanocomposite was relatively low, 3.6wt%. In this paper, MXene/ink composites with different contents were selected as the sensor, and the characteristics of the sensor were verified through monotone stretch and cyclic load-and-unload tests. When the MXene content just exceeds the percolation threshold (4wt%), the gauge factor (GF) of the sensor is higher, the results of monotonic tensile experiment show that there are two different sensitive stages of linear change (0 ~ 0.477%) and (0.477 ~ 1.37%), and the range GF is116.6 and 554.3, respectively. In addition, the linear relationship and sensitivity of the sensor remained stable after loading and unloading tensile tests. MXene/ink sensor has a broad application prospect in damage monitoring of aerospace structural composites.

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Acknowledgements

The financial contributions are gratefully acknowledged. This work was financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (U1733123, 11902204), Special Professor Project in Liaoning Province, Natural science foundation of Liaoning Province (20180550751), Education Department of Liaoning’s Item (JYT19041). The financial contributions are gratefully acknowledged. Innovative Talents Project of Higher Education Institutions in Liaoning Province (LR2019052), Shenyang Youth Science and technology innovation talent project (RC190004).

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Author notes

  1. Bohan Li and Keming Ma authors contributed equally to this work and should be considered co-first authors.

  2. Shaowei Lu and Sai Wang authors contributed equally to this work and should be considered co-corresponding authors.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering at, Shenyang Aerospace University (SAU), Shenyang, 110136, China

    Bohan Li, Keming Ma, Shaowei Lu, Xingmin Liu, Ziang Ma & Sai Wang

  2. Faculty of Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering at, Shenyang Aerospace University (SAU), Shenyang, 110136, China

    Lu Zhang & Xiaoqiang Wang

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  1. Bohan Li
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Li, B., Ma, K., Lu, S. et al. Structural health monitoring for polymer composites with surface printed MXene/ink sensitive sensors. Appl. Phys. A 126, 791 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-020-03979-4

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