Good News For Flexible Electronics: Scientists Invent A Stretchy Gold Conductor
Gold Conductor Researchers embedded a sample of polyurethane with gold nanoparticles. When stretched to extremes the material maintained conductivity. courtesy of Joseph Xu A new nanoparticle material conducts electricity even when stretched to twice its original length. A team of scientists at the University of Michigan has discovered that when stretched to their limits, gold nanoparticles embedded into elastic material self-assemble into conductive pathways. The finding has applications for flexible electronics and gentle medical devices. For their experiment, lead researchers Nicholas Kotov and Yoonseob Kim applied gold nanoparticles to a sample of polyurethane. Observing the effects with an electron microscope, the team slowly began to stretch the material. The nanoparticles responded to the tension by rearranging themselves into chains. Kotov and Kim tested two versions of the material. The first involved alternating layers of polyurethane and nanoparticles, which can conduct 11,000 Siemens per centimeter (S/cm) at its original size. After being stretched...