"Stretchtronics" from Carbon Nanotubes

August 08, 2008

This is pretty cool. Imagine being able to roll up your computer monitor or stretch a thin solar panel over a curved facade or wrap electronic sensors around the arm of a robot. You can't do that today because most electronics are built on rigid semiconductor surfaces.

But a team of Japanese researchers have designed a super-stretchy, rubbery material that could make way for all of those things I mentioned above. Their material is made from a carbon nanotube-elastomer composite material that incorporates an array of organic transistors.

The sheet can be stretched in several different directions more than 70 percent more than its original shape without any damage occurring to the electronics.

The team report their work in this week's issue of Science.

Photo: Courtesy of Science/AAAS