Giant piezoresistive response in zinc-polydimethylsiloxane composites under uniaxial pressure

摘要

Investigations on the piezoresistive response of composites containing zinc conductive fillers at different concentrations in polydimethylsiloxane ( PDMS) polymer matrix are presented here. The composites remain insulating even at high filler concentrations. The piezoresistive behaviour of the Zn-PDMS composites under uniaxial pressure shows the resistivity changes by approximately seven orders of magnitude around 4MPa pressure. We find that the piezoresistive behaviour of the Zn-PDMS composites can be explained in the framework of electron tunnelling between the metal particles.