A group of scientists from the Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Michigan (USA) has discovered a new material made of spherical gold nanoparticles which could become the best flexible electricity conductor ever designed to date. "Essentially the new materials of metal nanoparticles behave as elastic. This is just the beginning of a new family of materials that can be manufactured from a variety of nanoparticles for a wide range of applications," explains lead author, Nicholas Kotov.
The elastic conducting materials research today is driven by technology needs. For example, we would all like to have flexible mobile phones or tablets that do not break if dropped. But some of the most important applications envisioned for these new materials in the future have more to do with medical implants that can move with the body.
Since graphene was first synthesized, something which earned Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010, it seems that this material built from carbon will solve all the challenges that scientists face nowadays. But, though their properties are amazing, definitely it is not the only flexible conductor currently being investigated.
According to the authors of the publication that has just appeared in the journal 'Nature', the possibilities range from cardiac implants capable of transmitting electrical impulses of the heart and move with the cardiac muscle itself to brain electrodes or flexible electronics. As cited in the work, the conductivities of electricity achieved with this material made of five layers of gold are similar to those of mercury, which is a great conductor. This property makes Kotov and his colleagues see this material as a candidate for the manufacture of electrodes, in particular, Kotov is interested in further research on the development of brain implants. "These can alleviate many diseases, such as severe depression, Alzheimer's or Parkinson's. It can also serve as part of artificial limbs and other prostheses controlled by the brain," says Kotov.
In the same vein, researchers at the University of Berkeley have uncovered one of the most complex electronic systems ever built on plastic. The invention consists of a thin plastic sheet that emits light with an intensity that reflects just the right amount of pressure applied to its surface, giving clues about how interfaces for flexible computers could be designed in the future. Described in the journal Nature Materials, the new light emitting electronic "skin" (that's how it is called by its inventors), is an extension of previous work Ali Javey lab, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of California at Berkeley. Javey group has developed a process which uses a large number of traditional manufacturing techniques for silicon uniformly and reliably integrating various organic and inorganic constituents on a plastic.
