Calculating consumption from smart socks and sportswear has become the latest essential technology for wearable body sensors and researchers are using the world's best fabric silk to develop a more flexible and responsive new generation of multifunction devices that can be monitored in real time Many physical functions.
The technology is being demonstrated at the National Association of American Chemistry (ACS) National Conference and Exposition, the largest scientific society in the world and the 9400 demonstration of a wide range of science themed events.
Human sensors are composed of semiconductors and have great potential in the area of ​​human health monitoring. But it still has some challenging puzzles. For example, in the strain sensor force measurement changes, the lack of sensitivity, scalability is not strong and so on.
Silk is a natural material that is more powerful than steel flexible nylon and overcomes these problems, as well as its good biocompatibility and lightening properties. However, silk can not conduct electricity. To overcome this obstacle, researchers find ways to increase the electrical conductivity of silk and effectively apply it to somatosensory devices.
Researchers plan to try two different strategies. In one approach, they placed the silk in an inert atmosphere at a temperature of 1112 ° F to 5432 ° F at which temperature the silk became graphite particles filled with nitrogen and carbon, in which case it was electrically conductive. Using this approach, the team developed pressure sensors, strain sensors and a dual-mode sensor that measures both temperature and pressure simultaneously.
In another approach, the team fed carbon nanotubes and graphene to silkworms and added the nanoparticles to silk through silkworms. So far, this technique has not produced conductive fibers, but researchers continue to experiment with this method and believe they can make it work.
Researchers are keen to explore how to develop a silk-based sensor that is made up of nano-generator runs. The researchers also suggested that silk sensors be used to build more usable robots that can sense temperature, touch or humidity, and even discern people's voices.