Smart Rubber: Is It Nearing Reality?

Rubber materials are used in a wide variety of different applications, they range from seals to tyres and from earthquake bearings to barrier coatings. In all of these applications it is easy to conceive of ways that the product could be enhanced by it having some attribute of ‘smart’ behaviour. There are a several new and emerging technologies that may eventually allow rubber materials to work as either a sensor device to detect displacements or forces, predict failure or even detect a leak. In addition, there is the potential for rubber materials to be developed that can act as an actuator when subjected to certain stimuli such as an electric or magnetic field, a change in temperature or even by exposure to light. A range of these emerging technologies will be reviewed. The presentation will then examine the authors work on the piezoresistivity of an insulating rubber filled with a conducting filler such as carbon black above its percolation threshold under strain.