Scientists develop bendy material that conducts electricity

Weird science


11 August 2008 12:26 GMT / By Katie Scott

A team of scientists in Japan have developed a material, described as almost rubber-like, that can conduct electricity.

Tsuyoshi Sekitani and his team at the University of Tokyo wrote in the journal Science that the material could be used on curved surfaces or even in moving parts.

It was developed using carbon nanotubes, which are a long stretch of carbon molecules that can conduct electricity.

The team mixed these into rubbery polymer to form the basic material.

They then attached a grid of tiny transistors to the material and then put it to the test, says Reuters.

The Japanese team claimed to have been able to stretch the sheet of this material to nearly double its original size and it snapped back into place.

But this was, crucially. without disrupting the transistors or ruining the material's conductive properties.

Sekitani and his colleagues wrote that, because of this stretchy property, the material could be mounted on "arbitrary curved surfaces and movable parts, such as the joints of a robot's arm."
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