After nearly six years of research at the Technical University of Graz, Italian-born Anna Maria Coclite has developed the “smart skin” of the next generation of intelligent artificial materials. Your “smart skin” combines multi-sensory properties and can record information about humidity, temperature and pressure – more sensitive than human fingertips.
With 2000 individual sensors per square millimeter, Coclite’s hybrid material is more sensitive than human fingertips. Each of these sensors consists of a unique combination of materials: an intelligent polymer in the form of a hydrogel on the inside and a shell made of piezoelectric zinc oxide. “The hydrogel’s ability to absorb water means it expands with changes in humidity and temperature. In doing so, it exerts pressure on the piezoelectric zinc oxide, which reacts to this and all other mechanical loads with an electrical signal,” explains the researcher.
“Smartskin” registers micro-organisms itself
The result is a wafer-thin material that simultaneously responds to the effects of force, moisture and temperature with extremely high spatial resolution and transmits corresponding electronic signals. “The first material samples are six micrometers thick, or 0.006 millimetres. But it can be even thinner,” says Coclite. In comparison, the human epidermis is 0.03 to 2 millimeters thick. Human skin perceives things from a size of about a square millimeter. The “Smartskin” has a resolution a thousand times smaller and can register objects that are too small for human skin, such as microorganisms.
The development was possible in a globally unique process, for which the researchers combined three well-known methods from physical chemistry for the first time: chemical vapor deposition for the hydrogel material, atomic layer deposition for the zinc oxide and nanoprint lithography for the polymer template. The research group “Hybrid Electronics and Structuring” led by Barbara Stadlober was responsible for the lithographic preparation of the polymer template. The group is part of Joanneum Research’s Weiz-based Materials Institute.
Versatile application
According to the broadcast, the skin-like hybrid material now has several areas of application: in healthcare, for example, the sensor material could independently detect microorganisms and report accordingly. Also conceivable are prostheses that provide the wearer with information about temperature or humidity, or robots that can perceive their environment more sensitively. In any case, the “Smartskin” already has an advantage during production: the sensory nanorods – the “smart core” of the material – are produced using a steam-based manufacturing process. This process is already well established in production facilities for integrated circuits, for example. The production of the “smart skin” can thus be easily scaled up and implemented in existing production lines.
The properties of the “smart skin” now need to be further optimized: Coclite and her team – in particular PhD student Taher Abu Ali – want to extend the temperature range to which the material reacts and improve the flexibility of the artificial skin.
Source: Krone
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
