Light-powered healing of a wearable electrical conductor
Tuesday, June 2, 2015 - 06:30
in Physics & Chemistry
Mechanical failure along a conductive pathway can cause the unexpected shutdown of electronic devices, ultimately limiting device lifetimes. In particular, wearable electronic devices, which inevitably undergo dynamic and vigorous motions (e.g., bending, folding, or twisting), are much more liable to suffer from such conductive failures compared with conventional flat electronic devices. To address this problem, various systems to realize healable electrical conductors have been proposed; however, rapid, noninvasive, and on-demand healing, factors that are all synergistically required, especially for wearable device applications, still remains challenging to realize.