4D printing

Solution Processable Carbon Nanotubes Based Sensors: Towards 4D Printed Electronics

-

B2 L5 R5209

In this thesis, we focus on the design and development of 4D printed sensors. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are used as the active sensing medium as they have proven to be ideal for application in sensors due to their high electric conductivity, stability, and mechanical flexibility. The effect of a heat-shrinkable substrate on the electronic and structural properties of CNTs is analyzed in depth, followed by the application in temperature, humidity, and pressure sensors. The results show that the 4D effect results in a more porous yet more conductive film due to an increase in the charge carrier concentration, enabling an improved sensitivity of the devices and allowing us to tune the selectivity based on the shrinking percentage. The developed device was fabricated using a rapid, cost-effective technique that is independent of advanced fabrication facilities to expand its applications to low-resource settings and environments.

Lana Joharji

Lana Joharji completed her master’s degree at the SAMA Labs in the Electrical and Computer Engineering program at KAUST. She received her bachelor's degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from King Abdulaziz University (KAU), KSA, in 2021. Her research interests include sensors, actuators, flexible and soft electronics for environmental applications. She received the KAUST Graduate Fellowship for her MS/Ph.D. program. She is a student member of the IEEE and Saudi Council of Engineers. After graduating from the SAMA labs, she joined Tufts University, USA, as a PhD student.

Fahad Alam

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Dr. Fahad Alam is currently a postdoc at SAMA lab. He received his MSc and MTech from AMU Aligarh, India, in 2009 and 2012, respectively, and PhD from IIT Kanpur, India in 2017. He worked as a Postdoc, in Khalifa University Abu Dhabi from April 2018 to March 2022. He has previously received N-PDF, India, and EU-India (IITK-University of Groningen) exchange fellowship. His research interests include 3D/4D printing and shape memory polymers.

Aljawharah Alsharif

Aljawharah Alsharif is a PhD student in Electrical and Computer Engineering and a member of the Smart, Advanced Memory Devices and Applications lab (SAMA) at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia. She is passionate about shaping the future of wearable devices, flexible and soft electronics, sensors, and actuators through 4D/3D printing.