The results were published in the journal Nature Communications.
Researchers from the National Institute for Materials Sciences (NIMS) and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), from Japan have developed a liquid electret material capable of semi-permanently retaining static electricity. This material was then combined with soft electrodes, and thus achieved the first flexible and stretchable device through vibration.
This advancement thanks to its deformable properties and its ability to convert vibrations into electrical signals, its application can be key to the development of medical devices such as pulse sensors or self-acting medical devices.
“An electret material capable of semi-permanently retaining an electrical charge can generate voltage as its distance to the associated electrode changes. Because of this property, electret materials may be applicable to the development of vibration-powered (piezoelectric) devices and sensors capable of converting externally applied vibration and pressure into electrical signals. However, conventional electret materials are solid or in film form, and as such are inflexible and incapable of deformation into complex shapes, making them unsuitable for use in the development of wearable heartbeat and pulse sensors,” reads in the NIMS press release.
In the future these researches hope to finally achieve its sanitary use, once the device has been improved through technical processing modifications. Alternatively, they will also seek the potential use of this innovation as an electrical power source for smart devices.
NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR MATERIAL SCIENCE
https://www.nims.go.jp/eng/news/press/2019/09/201909300.html
