A team of researchers at the Universidade of Coimbra have developed a highly promising material for a new generation of electronic devices under the CMU Portugal project WoW. The research work presents a promising material that can be used in flexible displays, flexible solar panels, and even wearable biosensors among others. Led by Mahmoud Tavakoli, the Institute of Systems and Robotics team from Universidade de Coimbra recently published their findings and graciously was featured on the Advanced Materials Technologies journal cover page.
This graphene-coated liquid metal nanocomposite is a novel and promising class of biphasic composite that can be used as a transparent conductor. The authors used an infrared laser source for simultaneous laser sintering, thinning, and ablation of reduced graphene oxide coated eutectic gallium-indium alloy films and demonstrated their application in the fabrication of a high-resolution semitransparent sensor for human breath monitoring.
This is the first report showing a transparent conductor based on liquid metal. According to Mahmoud Tavakoli, “Liquid metals are interesting because they provide stretchability and self-healing, and they are excellent in thermal dissipation. So, this is an important step toward screens that are very resilient, and very resistant.”
The structure of the new material and the manufacturing method presented in this study represents an important step towards a rapid, low-cost, and scalable fabrication of graphene-based electrodes. The next step of the investigation will be, according to Mahmoud Tavakoli, «to explore the use of other types of lasers to improve the conductivity or transparency of the electrodes, as well as to study other applications of this technique such as film electronics, gas sensors, and moisture and energy storage devices.”
Link to Article
Link to Coverpage
In the Media: RTP, Visão, Porto Canal, Notícias de Coimbra, Sapo, Greensavers, Planeta Algarve, Ambiente Magazine
