Color-Shifting Electronic Skin Could Have Wearable Tech and Prosthetic Uses
From: Phys.org - 07/25/2017

Researchers at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China have developed a
user-interactive electronic skin with a color change perceptible to the human
eye. The sensor performs this operation with a lower level of strain, which
could have applications in robotics, prosthetics, and wearable technology.
The researchers used flexible electronics made from graphene, in the form of
a highly sensitive resistive strain sensor, combined with a stretchable
organic electrochromic device. "To obtain good performance with a simple
process and reduced cost, we designed a modulus-gradient structure to use
graphene as both the highly sensitive strain-sensing element and the
insensitive stretchable electrode of the ECD layer," says Tsinghua
University's Tingting Yang. The mechanical property of the substrate was
strongly relevant to the performance of the strain-sensing materials. "This
is something that has previously been somewhat overlooked, but that we
believe should be closely considered in future studies of the
electromechanical behavior of certain functional materials," Yang says.

Read the entire article at:
https://phys.org/news/2017-07-color-shifting-electronic-skin-wearable-tech.html