INDIA (Commonwealth Union) – The switch to environmentally friendly products such as the switch to biodegradable plastics from non-biodegradable plastics and more frequent application of reusable bags has been on the surge in recent times. This trend is likely to increase with more research into environmentally friendly options.
A common use for industrial, automotive and healthcare applications depends on the exact assessment of pressure. Flexible and wearable pressure sensors are typically produced with petroleum-based polymers. The solid waste produced from applying non-biodegradable plastics can become environmentally destructive. To move to a more greener approach researchers at the Indian Institute of Science have produced pressure sensors that implement paper as the medium.
A pressure sensor finds physical pressure and turns it into an electrical signal that is seen in the form of an amount reflective of its magnitude. Presently, paper-based electronic devices are gaining greater interest due to their natural biodegradability, good flexibility, porous fibrous structure, light weight and cheaper rate. An obstacle is that paper-based sensors developed so far have some disadvantages.
“In any sensor, there is always a trade-off between sensitivity and dynamic range. We want to have high sensitivity. Sensitivity is essentially a measure of the smallest entity (amount of pressure) that we can detect. And we want to sense that quantity over an extensive range,” Navakanta Bhat, Professor at the Centre for Nano Science and Engineering said.
His team forwarded a design for the paper sensor that, by virtue of its form and multilayering, achieves elevated sensitivity and can find a broad range of pressures (0-120 kPa) responding in 1 millisecond. Professor Bhat further stated that future applications of this device are restricted only by our perception and they could also work on raising the stability and durability of these sensors and possibly work together with industries to produce them in large numbers.
