The 14th Global Conference on Materials Science and Engineering
(CMSE 2025)

Abstract: The integration of carbon nanomaterials with flexible polymers has received intensive attention as a promising research direction in developing materials with novel properties for advanced applications. Moreover, the progress of flexible materials processing technologies has been remarkable, driven by the growing demand for flexible, ultra-sensitive wearable sensors in applications such as myoelectric prosthetics, soft robotics, and personalized health tracking. We have a developed flexible material to be designed for sensing applications by means of thermal and electrical flexible properties. Herein, we report on the fabrication and characterization of flexible porous polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) coated with graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs), explore the mechanisms affecting its various properties under deformation, and propose new applications for it. The results showed lightweight and excellent flexibility characteristics for the obtained GNP PDMS composite. Measurements of its electrical resistance revealed a change in the electrical resistivity from 2.35 x10 Ω/m to 194 Ω/m under strain change from 10 to 80% illustrating its ability to shift behavior from an electrical insulator to a relatively low resistivity material and demonstrating the considerable potential for use as a flexible electrical switch. Moreover, the thermal conductivity of GNP-PDMS was found to be significantly enhanced (up to ~110%) by changing the level of compression from 20% to 80%, proving a strain-tunable thermal performance, and allowing its utilization as an insulation material of variable conductance for unique thermal management applications.

Keywords: GNPs, multifunctionality, polymer-nano-composites, flexible sensors.

Biography: Levent Trabzon is a faculty member of Mechanical Engineering at Istanbul Technical University, ITU. He completed B.Sc. degree on the Mechanical Engineering Department at Bogazici University, Istanbul in 1992 and M.Sc. degree on the Materials Science and Engineering at Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh in 1995 and Ph.D. degree on Engineering Science Department at The Pennsylvania State University, State College, in 2000. He is also adjunct Professor at Samarkant State University and Tashkent State Technical University. He was the founding director of Nanotechnology Research and Application Center - ITUnano and he is currently director of MEMS Research Center. He has published more than 100 research articles in journals and conferences with 12 patents application. He has got several national and international awards including the Technology award from Elginkan Foundation for his contribution on MEMS technology and first place in the International Innovation Competition, IAM2021. His research interests are primarily on MEMS-Design and fabrication, nanotechnology/materials, microfluidics, surface science and polymer-nano-composites.