REU • Research Experience for Undergraduates

SiliconeShakes (2024)

Navigating Conductive Soft Polymer Composite Fabrication

Description

In the world of materials science, many are developing nanomaterial composites to simulate human skin, bone, and organs. Conductive soft materials are a hit for trying to simulate biomaterials, however many different materials could be used such as silicone elastomers with conductive fillers. There is a need to determine a better way to navigate through the fabrication process by identifying the best dispersion/mixing technique for fabrication of the conductive skin like bio materials. This research combines two different dispersion methods, hand mixing (with power tool), and ultrasonic homogeneous mixer with conductive materials like copper powder, graphite powder, and chopped carbon fiber. We investigate how different fabrication techniques affect the dispersion by looking at how well a conductive composite can process data through an electroencephalogram (EEG). Our work aims to address the challenges encountered in fabricating conductive composites and preparing conductive materials to support the development of simulated biomaterials for testing.