Created "electronic skin" that can stretch and enlarge 28 times

The new electronic skin was developed by the engineering group of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (Saudi Arabia). And it is capable of stretching 28 times and remaining fully functional even after 5000 deformations, which is a great achievement. That's what I want to tell you about him today.

Modern sensors that simulate the skin and their problems

Most of the sensors that mimic human skin are created according to one principle: an active nanomaterial (sensor) is applied to an elastic base.

But in most cases, the connection created in this way is destroyed rather quickly, and if you further strengthen the connections between sensors, it turns out a rather coarse and poorly bending material that can be easily damaged when bending and extension.

A completely new version of "electronic skin", developed at the Abdullah Crab University, is created on the basis of a hydrogel, which is additionally strengthened with particles of silicon dioxide (in the role of a reliable and elastic substrate), as well as two-dimensional titanium carbide MXene, which serves as a highly sensitive layer connected into a single network by conductive nanowires.

As the authors of the study explain, hydrogels themselves are 70% water and therefore are perfectly compatible with real human skin. So the engineers pre-stretched the hydrogel as much as possible and then applied a whole network of nanowires, controlling the entire compression process.

This is how it was possible to create a material that remained fully functional even after stretching the material 28 times from its original state.

At the same time, the tests performed showed that the electronic skin created in this way was capable of recognize objects at a distance of 20 centimeters and respond to external stimuli in just one tenth of a second.

Moreover, even after 5000 deformation interactions, the "electronic skin" was restored to its original state.

Why are such developments needed

Thus, the development of a full-fledged "electronic skin" can be extremely useful for the development of new generation prostheses, as well as personalized medicine. After all, sensors in electronic skin are able to read biological parameters of a person and relay them to a server, for example, via a Wi-Fi network.

In addition, it can be in demand in the creation of humanoid robots, as well as in the development of artificial intelligence.

Did you like the material? Then we put our thumbs up and be sure to subscribe. Thank you for your attention!