Reduced Graphene oxide strain gauge sensor for dynamic pressure sensing

Pressure sensors with good performance characteristics such as high sensitivity, repeatable output, wide range, and which can be manufactured cost effectively are highly desirable for pressure sensing applications. Nanomaterials are known to be promising building blocks for innovative Pressure sensors with enhanced performances and devices based on several representative nanostructures such as nanoparticles, nanowires, nanotubes, and graphene have been reported. Among nanomaterials rGO (Reduced Graphene oxide) offers an alternative option for addressing the increased demand for scalable and low-cost pressure sensors because of its ease of synthesis. In the proposed work we present a stainless steel mechanical structure along with rGO strain gauge based pressure sensor for both static and dynamic pressure sensing applications. The performance of the sensor is evaluated experimentally and is compared against a standard strain gauge for a pressure range of 0 to 20 bar. The developed sensor exhibits a pressure sensitivity of 1.19 $\Omega$/bar, with gauge factor of 120 for static pressure and as well as dynamic pressure. The sensors vital characteristics such as peak output, rise time and the response time were 6.2 mV, 1.52 ms, and 0.43 ms. The high sensitivity and a wide sensing range enable it for a broad variety of applications.