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“The method we used to create the material is also important because it is a simple process that would be easy to scale,” Yong Zhu, co-correspondent for an article on the research and professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at NC State, said in a press release.
Breathable wearables should be more comfortable and less likely to irritate the skin than non-breathable alternatives, in part because they allow sweat to evaporate. The team believes this material could be used to create dry, skin-mountable electrodes, potentially making new applications for electrocardiography (ECG) and electromyography (EMG) possible. The material can also be used for human-machine interfaces, such as the prototype sleeve that the researchers created.
“If we want to develop portable sensors or user interfaces that can be used for a significant period of time, we need gas-permeable electronic materials,” says Zhu. “So this is an important step forward.”
Several years ago, researchers in the state of North Carolina tested a technique called atomic layer deposition, which created a tissue that could conduct electricity. While this new project is still in the prototype phase, it shows just how far researchers from the state of North Carolina and the wearable community at large have come.
