Material bends, stretches and conducts electricity?

yahoo via reuters ^ | 8/7/2008 | Julie Steenhuysen

[shove_it]

In the latest twist on electronics, Japanese scientists said on Thursday they have developed a rubbery material that conducts electricity, a finding that could be used to make devices that bend and stret

The material, described by Tsuyoshi Sekitani of the University of Tokyo in the journal Science, could be used on curved surfaces or even in moving parts, they said.

Sekitani's team developed their material using carbon nanotubes, a long stretch of carbon molecules that can conduct electricity.

They mixed these into rubbery polymer to form the basic material. Next, they attached a grid of tiny transistors to the material and then put it to the test.

They stretched the sheet of material to nearly double its original size and it snapped back into place, without disrupting the transistors or ruining the material's conductive properties.

The elastic conductor would allow electronic circuits to be mounted in places that would have been impossible up to now, including "arbitrary curved surfaces and movable parts, such as the joints of a robot's arm," Sekitani and colleagues wrote.

Earlier this week, a U.S. team reported developing an elastic mesh material that allowed them to use standard electronics materials to build an electronic eye camera based on the shape and layout of the human eye.

That device could be the basis for the development of an artificial eye implant...

[shove_it]

Cool!

[Bon mots]

I have stuff like that in my house. It bends and is very flexible and conducts electricity.

It’s called ‘wire’.

[shove_it]

That’s what I first thought too. Keep reading.

:o)

[Ken522]

I was thinking the same thing - “wire” doesn’t need carbon nanotubes and we already have it here!

[Glenn]

You go, Gumby!

[AntiKev]

Yep...but wire will fatigue...this stuff seemingly won’t.

[WayneS]

“Material bends, stretches and conducts electricity?”

Let’s see.....

Copper Wire?

[WayneS]

Seriously, though.

If this stuff can be fully developed and brought to market as a reliable product, then it will be a huge benefit for items/systems that have vibrating/moving parts which require electrical wiring.

[BufordP]

Brown 25 has been around for more than 30 years. It has the strength of steel, the flexibility of rubber, and the nutritional value of beef stew.

[RightOnline]

Wire; hmmmm.........try stretching it.

[WayneS]

That’s disgusting.

Funny! But disgusting.

[grey_whiskers]

Like, *PING*, dudes.

Cheers!

[BufordP]

That’s disgusting.

'fraid I can't argue with that.

[coloradan]

If you coil the wire into a spring, it gains stretchability without losing conductivity.

[WayneS]

By the way, I like your tag-line.

I am surprised FR hasn’t suspended you for it.

[CholeraJoe]

the development of an artificial eye implant...

Damn! More skin jobs on the street.

[bmwcyle]

Does the relate to the The Piezoelectric Effect?

[Bon mots]

Wire; hmmmm.........try stretching it.

OK.
No problem.
:)

[BufordP]

Thanks. I know it may at first seem like a banible (word?) offense. But in all honesty, who could argue?

[Pistolshot]

Wasn’t that originally in the movie “Groove Tube”?