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| The electronic skin monitors your heart rate |
Electronically reinforced skin can be an environmentally friendly alternative to portable devices, which you can use to monitor your heart rate and step count.
American experts have developed a completely recyclable device by wrapping a liquid metal wire between two layers of polymer. The functional principle is similar to that of an expandable printed circuit board.
The research team said: The skin-like device can also be used to measure body temperature and can be shaped to fit anywhere on the body.
Mechanical engineer (Jianliang Xiao) of the University of Colorado at Boulder spoke about the flexibility of the device: If you want to wear it as a necklace, you can wear it around your neck, and if you want to wear it as a necklace, you can wear it on your wrist you can carry.
According to the team, the concept behind the device could lead to a future where high-tech recyclable leather can enable people to collect important data without creating electronic waste such as smart watches.
Experts predict that by next year, humans will generate more than 55 million tons of e-waste in the form of waste from smartphones, laptops, tablets and other devices.
Xiao said: Our solution to e-waste is to start with the way devices are manufactured, not the end point or time by which it is canceled. We hope the equipment will be easy to recycle.
To make electronic skins, the researchers used screen printing technology, which allows them to form a liquid metal screen to form a circle and then apply it to two layers of a self-healing material, polyacrylate. between.
The research team said: The final device is a bit thicker than the adhesive pad and can be heated on human skin. If we want a wearable device, this is the perfect way to turn it into a film that fits comfortably in your body.
They added that the device can expand by up to 60% in any direction without breaking or damaging the internal electronics.
Zhang explained that the electronic leather can repair itself within 13 minutes, allowing the bonds that hold the damaged polymer together to be repaired.
However, the e-leather is so far away that it cannot compete with the wearable devices in the commercial market. Therefore, it still needs external power to function.