Host: The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
Name : [in Japanese]
Date : September 11, 2022 - September 14, 2022
With the aging of the population becoming a social issue, power-assistive suits to reduce the burden of caregiving for the elderly are attracting attention, development, and research. The objective of this study is to experimentally determine the optimal graphene content of graphene composite natural rubber used for sensing in these power-assistive suits. Graphene is a sheet-like material consisting of carbon atoms connected in a hexagonal network and has attracted much attention in recent years because of its high electrical conductivity and strength. Previous studies have shown that the optimal graphene content is between 8.05 wt% and 8.10 wt%. Therefore, to investigate the optimal graphene content, five types of graphene composite natural rubbers (8.06 wt%, 8.07 wt%, 8.08 wt%, and 8.09 wt%) were prepared and their electrical properties were investigated. Methods to facilitate the fabrication of graphene composite natural rubber were also investigated. Furthermore, the microstructure of graphene-composited natural rubber was observed. The results showed that graphene-composited natural rubber prepared at 8.06 wt% had the best electrical conductivity in this study. The use of pure water was also found to be effective in the preparation of graphene-composited natural rubber. However, due to the presence of pure water, comparison with previous studies is not possible. Therefore, graphene composite resin with less than 8.06 wt% should be studied again using pure water. In the future, the shape of graphene composite natural rubber should be investigated for practical use in assistive suits.
