Dieses dehnbare elektronische Material verhärtet sich beim Aufprall genau wie „Oobleck“.

>Scientists are keen to develop new materials for lightweight, flexible, and affordable wearable electronics so that, one day, dropping our smartphones won’t result in irreparable damage. One team at the University of California, Merced, has made conductive polymer films that actually toughen up in response to impact rather than breaking apart, much like mixing corn starch and water in appropriate amounts produces a slurry that is liquid when stirred slowly but hardens when you punch it (i.e., „oobleck“). They described their work in a talk at this week’s meeting of the American Chemical Society in New Orleans.

>“Polymer-based electronics are very promising,“ said Di Wu, a postdoc in materials science at UCM. „We want to make the polymer electronics lighter, cheaper, and smarter. [With our] system, [the polymers] can become tougher and stronger when you make a sudden movement, but… flexible when you just do your daily, routine movement. They are not constantly rigid or constantly flexible. They just respond to your body movement.“