Inspiration from the natural world: Boosting flexible electronics
With increased study of bio-adhesives, a significant effort has been made in search for novel adhesives that will combine reversibility, repeated usage, stronger bonds and faster bonding time, non-toxic, and more importantly be effective in wet and other extreme conditions.
A team of Korean scientists?made up of scientists from Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) and UNIST has recently found a way to make building flexible pressure sensors easier—by mimicking the suction cups on octopus’s tentacles.
In their paper published in the current edition of Advanced Materials, the research team describes how they studied the structure and adhesive mechanism of octopus suckers and then used what they learned to develop a new type of suction based adhesive material.
According to the research team, “Although flexible pressure sensors might give future prosthetics and robots a better sense of touch, building them requires a lot of laborious transferring of nano- and microribbons of inorganic semiconductor materials onto polymer sheets.”
In search of an easier way to process this transfer printing, Prof. Hyunhyub Ko (School of Energy and Chemical Engineering, UNIST) and his colleagues turned to the octopus suction cups for inspiration.
An octopus uses its tentacles to move to a new location and uses suction cups underneath each tentacle to grab onto something. Each suction cup contains a cavity whose pressure is controlled by surrounding muscles. These can be made thinner or thicker on demand, increasing or decreasing air pressure inside the cup, allowing for sucking and releasing as desired.
By mimicking muscle actuation to control cavity-pressure-induced adhesion of octopus suckers, Prof. Ko and his team engineered octopus-inspired smart adhesive pads. They used the rubbery material polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) to create an array of microscale suckers, which included pores that are coated with a thermally responsive polymer to create sucker-like walls.
The team discovered that the best way to replicate organic nature of muscle contractions would be through applied heat. Indeed, at room temperature, the walls of each pit sit in an ‘open’ state, but when the mat is heated to 32°C, the walls contract, creating suction, therby allowing the entire mate to adhere to a material (mimicking the suction function of an octopus). The adhesive strength also spiked from .32 kilopascals to 94 kilopascals at high temperature.
The team reports that the mat worked as envisioned—they made some indium gallium arsenide transistors that sat on a flexible substrate and also used it to move some nanomaterials to a different type of flexible material.
Prof. Ko and his team expect that their smart adhesive pads can be used as the substrate for wearable health sensors, such as Band-Aids or sensors that stick to the skin at normal body temperatures but fall off when rinsed under cold water.
Learn more: UNIST to Engineer Octopus-Inspired Smart Adhesive Pads
The Latest on: Flexible pressure sensors
[google_news title=”” keyword=”Flexible pressure sensors” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
via Google News
The Latest on: Flexible pressure sensors
- Philippines Automotive Pressure Sensors Market Next Frontier of Market Size New Heights and Possibilitieson May 27, 2024 at 6:41 pm
Report Ocean published the latest research report on the Philippines Automotive Pressure Sensors Market. In order to comprehend a market holistically, a variety of factors must be evaluated, including ...
- Global Sensors Market, Forecasted to Grow at a CAGR of 8.9% from 2024 to 2029on May 24, 2024 at 1:32 am
Image, pressure, radar, chemical, and biosensors make up over 60% of the market. Radar, current, and fingerprint sensors are expected to grow rapidly. New sensor technologies, like integrating ...
- Automotive Pressure Sensor Market to be worth US$ 22.6 billion by 2034 | CAGR of 10.4%on May 23, 2024 at 11:54 pm
The automotive pressure sensor market had an estimated market size of US$ 7.4 billion in 2023 and is expected to reach a global market size of US$ 22.6 billion by 2034, increasing at a robust CAGR ...
- EIT-based tactile sensor provides new approach to fine motor skills assessmenton May 21, 2024 at 8:19 am
Fine motor skills play a crucial role in human cognition, influencing everything from daily activities to the development of advanced tool-based civilizations. Yet, quantifying and evaluating these ...
- New robotic palm uses sophisticated tactile sensors to mimic human touchon May 20, 2024 at 1:46 pm
"I'll have you eating out of the palm of my hand" is an unlikely utterance you'll hear from a robot. Why? Most of them don't have palms.
- Flexible Pressure Sensor to Revolutionize Multiple Domainson April 17, 2024 at 9:45 am
Recent research published in the journal Microsystems & Nanoengineering on February 8 th, 2024, unveiled a cutting-edge flexible pressure sensor known for its extraordinary resistance to ultrahigh ...
- No-Battery Pressure Sensors For Bike Tyreson December 6, 2020 at 2:34 am
The device consists of an ultra low power microcontroller from Texas Instruments, paired with a pressure sensor. Set up for ... to wear out over time due to flex damaging the delicate copper ...
- The 14 best electric toothbrushes for adults that scrub teeth cleanon June 5, 2020 at 10:20 am
If you’re doing it right, you should spend at least 28 minutes a week brushing your teeth — using an electric toothbrush helps you make the most of that time. It offers a deeper clean than a ...
- Flex PCBs Make Force-Mapping Pressure Sensor For Amputeeon April 8, 2019 at 5:00 pm
But no matter what advanced sensors and actuators are ... Measuring and mapping the pressure on the residual limb is the business of this flexible force-sensing matrix. The idea for a two ...
- Tactile Pressure Sensors Informationon February 11, 2018 at 6:41 am
Tactile pressure sensors are used to detect the pressure distribution between a sensor and a target. They are often used as robot grippers or flat tactile arrays. Flexible sensors can be molded to ...
via Bing News