But connecting up the sensors is a challenge: wires normally snap if they are stretched by more than 1 or 2 per cent. The new material is a mixture of carbon nanotubes - which provide conductivity - and a polymer base. Nanotubes tend to clump together rather than spreading evenly throughout the polymer, however, which limits the material’s conductivity and makes it inelastic and brittle. Pretreating the nanotubes with “ionic liquids”, overcame this problem, although Someya says it’s still unclear how this works. The team achieved the best combination of stretchability and conductivity when the material contained 20 per cent by weight of very long nanotubes. A mesh made from this material can be stretched to more than twice its length. While some conductivity is lost, Someya’s team has used the material to make integrated circuits that still function when stretched by up to 70 per cent.
Future Vision by Erwin Van Lun on this article
While most people still need to get used to virtual characters, avatars or virtual colleagues, laboratories make maximum effort to produce physical, but artificial colleagues. However, it’ll take at least a generation before we’ll accept these humanoids in our midst.