In the field of robotics, metals have many advantages - strength, durability and
On the other hand, hydrogels are lightweight, stretchable andbiocompatible, making them excellent materials for contact lenses and tissue engineered frameworks. However, they do not conduct well the electricity that is needed for digital circuits and bioelectronic applications.
Researchers from Soft Machines LabCarnegie Mellon University has created a unique silver-hydrogel composite that has high electrical conductivity and is capable of passing direct current. At the same time, it remains pliable and deformable.
Power transmitted through conductive compositesilver and hydrogel, powered this soft swimmer's stingray-inspired shape memory alloy. Credit: Soft Machine Laboratory, College of Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University.
The team placed silver flakesmicrometer size in a polyacrylamide-alginate hydrogel matrix. After passing through the process of partial dehydration, the flakes formed percolation networks. They were electrically conductive and resistant to mechanical deformation. By controlling the dewatering and hydration process, the engineers caused the flakes to clump or break apart, forming reversible electrical connections.
Previous attempts to combine metals and hydrogelsled to a trade-off between improved electrical conductivity and reduced compliance and deformability. The engineers sought to solve this problem by drawing on their experience in developing tensile conductive liquid metal elastomers.
Another view of the stingray swimmer. Credit: Soft Machine Laboratory, College of Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University.
“Possessing high electrical conductivity and highelasticity, this new composite has many uses in bioelectronics and beyond, '' explained Carmel Majidi, professor of mechanical engineering and author of the study. "For example, you can create a brain sticker with sensors for signal processing, a wearable device to generate power for power electronics, and stretchable displays."
Composite silver hydrogel can be printedby standard techniques such as screen lithography. It is similar to screen printing. Researchers have used this technique to develop dermal electrodes for electrical neuromuscular stimulation. According to Majidi, the composite can cover a large area of the human body "like the second layer of nerve tissue on the skin."
In the future, the composite will be useful in the treatment of muscle disorders and movement disorders, for example, in patients with Parkinson's disease or after a stroke.
Read more
Uranus has received the status of the strangest planet in the solar system. Why?
Physicists have created an analogue of a black hole and confirmed Hawking's theory. Where it leads?
Abortion and science: what will happen to the children who will give birth
Electrical conductivity (electrical conductivity,conductivity) - the ability of a body (environment) to conduct an electric current, a property of a body or environment that determines the occurrence of an electric current in them under the influence of an electric field. Also a physical quantity characterizing this ability and the reciprocal of electrical resistance.