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April 30 (UPI) -- Engineers have developed a new ultra-thin, stretchable electronic material that is gas permeable. Like many high-performance fabrics, it can breathe. According to scientists, the new material could be used to make wearable electronics more comfortable, allowing sweat and volatile organic compounds to evaporate. Comfort is especially important for the kinds of devices that require long-term wear.
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Researchers described the new fabric this week in the journal ACS Nano.
"The gas permeability is the big advance over earlier stretchable electronics," study co-author Yong Zhu, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at North Carolina State University, said in a news release. "But the method we used for creating the material is also important because it's a simple process that would be easy to scale up."
Using what's known as the breath figure method, researchers created an even distribution of holes in stretchable polymer film. To give the fabric its electronic capabilities, scientists dipped the film in a solution featuring silver nanowires. Heat and pressure work to bake the nanowires into place.
"The resulting film shows an excellent combination of electric conductivity, optical transmittance and water-vapor permeability," Zhu said. "And because the silver nanowires are embedded just below the surface of the polymer, the material also exhibits excellent stability in the presence of sweat and after long-term wear."
In addition to being breathable, the electronic material is also extremely thin, measuring just few micrometers thick.
"This allows for better contact with the skin, giving the electronics a better signal-to-noise ratio," said study co-author Shanshan Yao, a former postdoctoral researcher at NC State, now an assistant professor at Stony Brook University.
Researchers used the new material to build a couple wearable prototypes, including a device featuring electrophysiologic sensors. When mounted on the skin, the sensors can record electrocardiography and electromyography signals. The prototype performed well.
"These sensors were able to record signals with excellent quality, on par with commercially available electrodes," Zhu said.
Researchers also integrated the material into a wearable touch-sensing device featuring porous electrodes, which scientists used as a controller to play Tetris and other computer games.
"If we want to develop wearable sensors or user interfaces that can be worn for a significant period of time, we need gas-permeable electronic materials," Zhu said. "So this is a significant step forward."
