海角直播

By combining the ancient Japanese art of paper cutting with nanotechnology, 海角直播 researchers have created a super flexible electronic material that could have applications in products ranging from smart jackets to solar cells.

鈥淐onnecting this idea, using kirigami for strain engineering with the nanomaterial we鈥檝e created, this is entirely novel,鈥� says Yeonwoong Jung, an assistant professor in UCF鈥檚 Department of who conceived of the new technique that鈥檚 combining art and engineering.

Strain engineering examines ways to improve the electrical properties of materials. The researchers鈥� work was recently published as a cover story in the journal Nano Letters.

The new material is comprised of a flexible, plastic-film-like polyimide substrate that鈥檚 laser-precision cut into kirigami patterns and then fused with a near atom-thickness layer of platinum and selenium elements produced by a chemical vapor deposition technique. The cuts almost look like gill-slits that run across the length of the film.

The result is a material with adjustable conductivity based on the thickness of the platinum and selenium elements and, because of the kirigami cuts, an ability to stretch to 2,000 percent longer than its original length without any loss in electronic performance.

The nanoscale layer of combined platinum and selenium fused to the polyimide substrate is so small, at only a few atoms thick, that is considered to be two dimensional, or in other words, lacking a height dimension.

The process is unique, too, in that the layer is formed directly on the substrate, whereas previous methods create the nanolayer separately and add it to the substrate later, thus reducing performance due to added steps that require additional handling of the materials.

鈥淭his really opens up an avenue for futuristic devices, and it has quite a number of potential applications,鈥� says Emmanuel Okogbue 鈥�19MS, a doctoral student in UCF鈥檚 who helped develop the material and is lead author on the new study.

鈥淭hese range from electric cords that stretch and don鈥檛 break, to stretchable solar cells, smart thermotherapeutic pads that provide controlled heat to patients, smart jackets and e-textiles that monitor heart rates and muscle activity, electronic skin patches that can allow doctors to remotely monitor a person鈥檚 health and more,鈥� he says.

Jung says the inspiration for using kirigami came from the interdisciplinary nature of his research in material sciences where he examines many different fields to bring out new ideas.

The material has held up to performance tests where it was stretched back and forth a thousand times without tearing or a loss in performance.

The lengths and locations of the kirigami cuts that optimized the material鈥檚 stretchability were determined using computer simulations performed by collaborators at Seoul National 海角直播 in South Korea.

The technology is still several years from reaching the market, the researchers say, and they are working on ways to improve it by experimenting with different types of cuts and using materials with greater electrical conductivity.

Co-authors of the study also included Sang Sub Han, a visiting doctoral student from Seoul National 海角直播; Tae-Jun Ko, a postdoctoral associate in UCF鈥檚 NanoScience Technology Center; Hee-Suk Chung, with the Korea Basic Science Institute; Jinwoo Ma, with Seoul National 海角直播; Mashiyat Sumaiya Shawkat, a doctoral student in UCF鈥檚 ; Jung Han Kim, a postdoctoral associate in UCF鈥檚 NanoScience Technology Center; Jong Hun Kim, with Seoul National 海角直播; Eunji Ji, with Yonsei 海角直播; Kyu Hwan Oh, with Seoul National 海角直播; Lei Zhai, a professor in UCF鈥檚 and director of UCF鈥檚 NanoScience Technology Center; and Gwan-Hyoung Lee, with Seoul National 海角直播.

Jung received his doctoral degree in materials science and engineering from the 海角直播 of Pennsylvania, his master鈥檚 degree in materials science and engineering from the 海角直播 of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, his bachelor鈥檚 degree in materials science and engineering from Seoul National 海角直播 in South Korea, and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Yale 海角直播. He also holds an affiliation with UCF鈥檚 and joined UCF in 2015.

Okogbue is a third-year doctoral student in electrical engineering in UCF鈥檚 College of Engineering and Computer Science. He received his master鈥檚 degree in electrical engineering from UCF and his bachelor鈥檚 in electrical engineering from Florida A&M 海角直播.