Stress-sensing nanomaterial calibrated with photostimulated luminescence emission

Calibration of high spatial resolution stress-sensing alumina-epoxy nanomaterials is presented. The piezospectroscopic property of luminescent chromium-doped alumina nanoparticles embedded as "nano-sensors" in epoxy-based materials is the basis for the stress sensing capabilities. The stress-optical properties are determined as piezopectroscopic coefficients in compression experiments for nanomaterials containing varying volume fractions of alumina nanoparticles. An increasing stress-sensitivity was demonstrated with higher volume fractions. Thermal variations were shown to have negligible effects on the stress sensing property. The development of this material sensing system will enable quantitative measurement and non-invasive monitoring of stress distributions within a polymer system applied as adhesives or as coatings on a substrate under loading conditions.