Fabrication and characteristics of flexible, lightweight, and low-cost pressure sensors based on PVA/SiO2/SiC nanostructures

Nanocomposite films of PVA/SiO2/SiC nanostructures were fabricated with various ratios of PVA and SiO2-SiC NPs by using casting method. The structural, optical, and dielectric characteristics of PVA/SiO2/SiC films have been studied to be used in flexible, lightweight, high sensitivity, and low-cost pressure sensors compared with the other types of pressure sensors. The results indicated that the optical characteristics which included the absorbance and energy gap of PVA enhanced with the rise in SiO2-SiC NP ratios. The dielectric characteristics showed that the dielectric parameters of PVA improved with the rise in SiO2-SiC NP ratios. The pressure sensor results of PVA/SiO2/SiC nanocomposites showed that the dielectric parameters increased with the increase in pressure for various ratios of SiO2-SiC NPs. Finally, the increase in sensitivity was 50.18%, 52%, and 53.46% at 1 kHz, 100 kHz, and 1 MHz, respectively, when the SiO2-SiC NPs content reached 3.6 wt% which makes it suitable to be used in different electronic, optical, and electric fields.