Nanotech
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Development of nanoparticle-based resistive sensors

The Nanotech team develops resistive sensors such as strain gauges, humidity sensors and temperature sensors. They are based on compact nanoparticle assemblies made by convective self-assembly. Figures 5 and 6 illustrate some results obtained with nanoparticle-based strain gauges. These sensors are extremely sensitive because of the exponential variation of their electrical resistance as function of induced strain. As a comparison, conventional metallic strain gauges exhibit a linear answer.

Figure 5 : Scheme (left) and photograph (right) of a typical nanoparticle-based resistive strain gauge.
Figure 6: Relative resistance variation as a function of induced strain for four 18nm gold nanoparticle-based strain gauges with different thicknesses: M1, four layers; M2, three layers, M3, one monolayer. The dashed green line represents the response of a conventional metal foil gauge with a gauge factor G = 2 [Réf : C. Farcau, H. Moreira, B. Viallet, J. Grisolia, D. Ciuculescu-Pradines, C. Amiens et L. Ressier J. Phys. Chem. C 115 (30), 14494-14499 (2011)]