Powering up stretchy technology

Nanowerk  December 30,2020
Implantable devices need electronics that can be integrated with soft tissue and accommodate the motion of the body. A team of researchers in the US (Michigan State University, Duke University, Oak Ridge National Laboratory) is working on “plant wearables,” which are sensors for crops that can stretch and bend as the plants grow and move. To power these devices they used 4D printing to create supercapacitors that can stretch to new limits without compromising their electrochemical performance. The team used an aerosol jet printer to directly deposit a specially formulated ink onto a stretchable polymer substrate. The ink features a blend of conductive carbon materials to meet the team’s desired electrochemical and mechanical properties. It contains both carbon nanotubes and graphene oxide. When the ink is cured at the right conditions it essentially folded the printed films into the expected pattern. They demonstrated the materials, the process and how to integrate it…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE 

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