The sensor is stretchy in all directions and then rebounds to the original shape. Photograph by Steve Fyffe, courtesy of Zhenan Bao, Stanford University.
Using carbon nanotubes that are bent to act as springs, researchers at Stanford University, California, have developed a stretchable, transparent skin-like sensor. The sensors could be used in making touch-sensitive prosthetic limbs or robots, for various medical applications such as pressure-sensitive bandages, or in computer touch screens. The sensor can be stretched to more than twice its original length and bounce back perfectly to its original shape.
According to a press release issued by Stanford University, that enviable elasticity is one of several new features built into a new transparent skin-like pressure sensor-the latest sensor developed by Stanford’s Zhenan Bao, PhD, associate professor of chemical engineering, in her quest to create an artificial “super skin.” The sensor uses a transparent film of single-walled carbon nanotubes that act as tiny springs, enabling the sensor to accurately measure the force on it, whether it’s being pulled like taffy or squeezed like a sponge.
“This sensor can register pressure ranging from a firm pinch between your thumb and forefinger to twice the pressure exerted by an elephant standing on one foot,” said Darren Lipomi, PhD, a member of the research team and postdoctoral researcher in Bao’s lab.
“None of it causes any permanent deformation,” he added.
Lipomi and Michael Vosgueritchian, graduate students in chemical engineering, and Benjamin Tee, graduate student in electrical engineering, are the lead authors of a paper describing the sensor. The paper was published online in Nature Nanotechnology. Bao is a coauthor of the paper.
For more information on the project, visit http://news.stanford.edu/news/2011/october/stretchy-skinlike-sensor-102411.html
