On the Suitability of Liquid Silicon Rubber with Sn-based Catalyst for the Fabrication of a Passive Sensor by Direct Ink Writing for the Preservation of Heritage Clothing
摘要
In the past decade, the 3D printing of functional prototypes by direct ink writing (DIW) using room temperature vulcanizing (RTV) liquid silicon rubber (LSR) has been widely reported. However, little has been reported on the suitability of RTV-LSR with an Sn-based catalyst for the fabrication of passive sensors using DIW to preserve heritage clothing (HC). This study outlines the selection of a suitable mixing ratio for the RTV-LSR-Sn-based catalyst (225 grade) for the fabrication of tensile coupons (per ASTM D 638, Type V) printed on cotton–lyra (80-20) clothing using the DIW (for possible use in the preservation of HC). The result of this study suggested that the DIW samples printed on cotton–lyra (80-20) clothing have the better tensile properties (peak stress 6.616 MPa, peak load 88.862 N, stiffness 6.796 N/mm) compared to sample printed without clothing (peak stress 0.414 MPa, peak load 4.853 N, stiffness 0.14 N/mm), while printing with nozzle tip size (TS) of 18 gauge (per American wire gauge (AWG) ≈ 1.024 mm), printing speed (PS) of 6 mm/s, infill gap (IG) of 1 mm, layer thickness (LT) of 0.8 mm, printing pressure (PP) of 20 psi (0.137895 MPa), using a zigzag infill pattern. Furthermore, the dielectric constant (εr) for DIW samples printed on cotton–lyra (80-20) clothing base and without clothing base was 48.92 and 40.92, respectively, which supports the miniaturization of a microstrip-based patch antenna (MPA) sensor for health monitoring of HC. The results are supported by scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), which demonstrate the optimal performance of the sensor in preserving the HC.