Fabrication of mesoporous silica/carbon black nanospheres and load-sensitive conducting rubber nanocomposites

Mesoporous silica nanospheres (MSNs) with regular pores have been fabricated using cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as surfactant in high pH solution. The average size of the MCM-41 silica nanospheres was reduced from 95 to 48€nm, while the concentration of CTAB increases from 7.7 to 11.5mmol/L. Carbon black was deposited on MSNs using hexane as the carbon source. By mixing such materials with silicone rubber, the composites become conducting when equivalent carbon volume fraction is higher than a certain region, which is less sensitive to the morphology of the deposited carbon. The improved piezoresistance repeatability has been found on the composite sample of MSNs/carbon plus extra high conducting carbon black. The load and strain sensitive range up to 0.35MPa and 0.10, respectively, with less resistance fluctuation during multiple press loading cycles.