Sunday, July 3, 2022
SCIENMAG: Latest Science and Health News
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME PAGE
  • BIOLOGY
  • CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
  • MEDICINE
    • Cancer
    • Infectious Emerging Diseases
  • SPACE
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME PAGE
  • BIOLOGY
  • CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
  • MEDICINE
    • Cancer
    • Infectious Emerging Diseases
  • SPACE
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Scienmag - Latest science news from science magazine
No Result
View All Result
Home SCIENCE NEWS Biology

A touch of silver

March 11, 2021
in Biology
0
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Researchers develop unique Ag-hydrogel composite for soft bioelectronics

IMAGE

Credit: Soft Machines Lab, College of Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University

In the field of robotics, metals offer advantages like strength, durability, and electrical conductivity. But, they are heavy and rigid–properties that are undesirable in soft and flexible systems for wearable computing and human-machine interfaces.

Hydrogels, on the other hand, are lightweight, stretchable, and biocompatible, making them excellent materials for contact lenses and tissue engineering scaffolding. They are, however, poor at conducting electricity, which is needed for digital circuits and bioelectronics applications.

Researchers in Carnegie Mellon University’s Soft Machines Lab have developed a unique silver-hydrogel composite that has high electrical conductivity and is capable of delivering direct current while maintaining soft compliance and deformability. The findings were published in Nature Electronics.

The team suspended micrometer-sized silver flakes in a polyacrylamide-alginate hydrogel matrix. After going through a partial dehydration process, the flakes formed percolating networks that were electrically conductive and robust to mechanical deformations. By manipulating this dehydration and hydration process, the flakes can be made to stick together or break apart, forming reversible electrical connections.

Previous attempts to combine metals and hydrogels revealed a trade-off between improved electrical conductivity and lowered compliance and deformability. Majidi and his team sought to tackle this challenge, building on their expertise in developing stretchable, conductive elastomers with liquid metal.

“With its high electrical conductivity and high compliance or ‘squishiness,’ this new composite can have many applications in bioelectronics and beyond,” explained Carmel Majidi, professor of mechanical engineering. “Examples include a sticker for the brain that has sensors for signal processing, a wearable energy generation device to power electronics, and stretchable displays.”

The silver-hydrogel composite can be printed by standard methods like stencil lithography, similar to screen printing. The researchers used this technique to develop skin-mounted electrodes for neuromuscular electrical stimulation. According to Majidi, the composite could cover a large area of the human body, “like a second layer of nervous tissue over your skin.”

Future applications could include treating muscular disorders and motor disabilities, such as assisting someone with tremors from Parkinson’s disease or difficulty grasping something with their fingers after a stroke.

###

Ph.D. student Yunsik Ohm was first author on the paper titled “An electrically conductive silver-polyacrylamide-alginate hydrogel composite for soft electronics,” https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-021-00545-5 Nature Electronics. Additional authors included Chengfeng Pan, Michael J. Ford, Xiaonan Huang, and Jiahe Liao.

Media Contact
Lisa Kulick
[email protected]

Related Journal Article

http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41928-021-00545-5

Tags: Biomedical/Environmental/Chemical EngineeringBiotechnologyChemistry/Physics/Materials SciencesMaterialsRobotry/Artificial IntelligenceTechnology/Engineering/Computer Science
Share26Tweet16Share5ShareSendShare
  • How to MRI your dragon

    How to MRI your dragon: Illinois researchers develop first bearded dragon brain atlas

    74 shares
    Share 30 Tweet 19
  • Immune molecules from a llama could provide protection against a vast array of SARS-like viruses including COVID-19, researchers say

    74 shares
    Share 30 Tweet 19
  • Researchers perform non-line-of-sight ghost imaging with human vision

    73 shares
    Share 29 Tweet 18
  • Unique blend of comics and humor is key to success of public awareness posters in Singapore, finds Singapore-US researchers

    72 shares
    Share 29 Tweet 18
  • Human urine-derived stem cells have robust regenerative potential

    72 shares
    Share 29 Tweet 18
  • Researchers develop word-score model capable of estimating hidden hearing loss

    71 shares
    Share 28 Tweet 18
ADVERTISEMENT

About us

We bring you the latest science news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Latest NEWS

nTIDE May 2022 COVID Update: Uncertainty about inflation tempers good news for people with disabilities

COVID-19 fattens up our body’s cells to fuel its viral takeover

Famous Sterkfontein Caves deposit 1 million years older than previously thought

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 190 other subscribers

© 2022 Scienmag- Science Magazine: Latest Science News.

No Result
View All Result
  • HOME PAGE
  • BIOLOGY
  • CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
  • MEDICINE
    • Cancer
    • Infectious Emerging Diseases
  • SPACE
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • CONTACT US

© 2022 Scienmag- Science Magazine: Latest Science News.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
Posting....