Silver Doped Copper Oxide In Bio-Based Polyurethane Films-An Experimental Investigation For Electro-Mechanical Sensing

Investigation aims at incorporation of metal-metal oxide nanoparticles by solution combustion method, into castor-oil based polyurethane following insitu polymerization technique and studied for structural, morphological, mechanical, thermal and electrical characterizations. Filler variations were maintained based on weight percentage in the study with film thickness within 1±0.1mm. Introduction of doping enhanced copper oxide conductive fillers into polyurethane resulted in increase of current conduction value by 104 times compared to pure films along with improved stretchability characteristics. Films with 4.0 weight percent filler recorded conductivity values upto 10-7 S/cm. Pure films show stretchability upto 59% before breakage, with less than 2% material degradation upto operating temperatures of 160°C.