Abstract

Rubber based nanocomposites applicable as sensors in smart tires

Author(s): Omar A.Al-Hartomy, Ahmed Al-Ghamdi, Nikolay Dishovsky, Petrunka Malinova, Farid El-Tantawy

This work reports on the preparation of titanium diboride filled composites based on different in chemical nature elastomers (natural rubber, nitrile butadiene rubber and siloxane rubber). The studies on the dependences of volume resistivity on pressure and of resistance on deformation were carried out with regard to the application of such composites as pressure and deformation sensors. It has been found out that titanium diboride used as a filler at certain concentrations, has a very valuable property that a number of fillers do not possess, i.e. to linearize (to make linear) the dependences of volume resistivity and resistance on pressure and on deformation (varied in a wide range). The composites comprising that filler are also sensitive to slight changes in outside factors and those with an optimal filler amount have no hysteresis. The prepared elastomer based composites first of all those based on siloxane rubber could be used as transducers in pressure and deformation sensors. The elastomer nature of the composites and the possibility for an easy incorporation of the sensing element into tires, certainly after carrying out some additional investigations, is an especially interesting aspect of application of such type of composites in so called smart tires.