Engineers create ultra-thin and stretchable electronic materials with gas permeability

2024-01-09

Engineering researchers at North Carolina State University have created an ultra-thin, stretchable, and breathable electronic material. Breathability allows the material to breathe, making it more comfortable to wear. Researchers have designed materials specifically for biomedical or wearable technologies, where breathability allows sweat and volatile organic compounds to evaporate from the skin.

The breathable function makes wearable electronic devices more comfortable to wear for a long time. Researchers say that compared to early stretchable electronic products, breathability is a significant improvement. These teams say that the materials they develop are important because it is a simple process that is easy to expand. Researchers used a technique called breath chart to manufacture stretchable polymer films with uniform pore distribution.

By immersing the thin film in a solution containing silver nanowires for coating, and then hot pressing the material to seal the nanowires. Researchers indicate that this thin film exhibits a good combination of conductivity, optical transparency, and water vapor permeability. Due to the silver nanowires being embedded just below the surface of the polymer, the material also exhibits stability in the presence of sweat.

The materials created by the team are very fragile, only a few micrometers thick. The breathability of wearable electronic devices is crucial for comfort, as lack of breathability can cause skin irritation. The first prototype created by the team was a dry electrode that could be installed on the skin as an electrophysiological sensor. This type of sensor has multiple potential applications, including ECG and EMG measurements.

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