Biodegradable Sensors for Timber Construction Monitoring

The present work demonstrates the use of biobased and biodegradable materials to produce sensors that are sensitive to strain, relative humidity, and temperature. Crosslinked gelatin derivatives with a conductive additive are used as the sensitive layer and polylactic acid as a substrate. Surface modification by e-beam activated grafting ensures improved adhesion properties between sensitive layer and substrate, confirmed by the cross-cut test. Screen printing was applied to ensure contacting for ohmic resistance measurements. Experiments have shown that the sensitive layers can detect alterations in elongation, temperature and relative humidity.