Technology paved the way for artificial limbs that can move and work the way human limbs can, but one ingenious engineer said that he is going to change all that- with a plastic skin that can sense touch and even heal like the human skin can.
This was revealed recently by Stanford University chemical engineer Zhenan Bao, who said that prosthetics may take another step into the future with a plastic skin that could mimic the nerve sensors of the brain.
She said that she hopes to make this artificial skin do all of the things a real human skin can do.
The skin is the largest organ of the body and is responsible for enclosing the body with a protective layer to shield internal organs and human tissues from the elements and diseases.
Although faced with the complexities of mimicking the functions of the human skin, Bao said that she is getting there.
Bao’s experiments are being conducted in her laboratory at the Shriram Center for Bioengineering and Chemical Engineering, where she is using a specially designed sheets of plastic material for the skin.
Looking like transparent strips of thin plastic, the sheets were designed like minute and invisible semiconductor chips to imitate the electrical properties of silicon. A very close look of each small sheet contains shows a nano-scale pressure sensor.
The plastic changes its electrical properties depending on the pressure applied to it, however, Bao said, so they created an electrical circuit that relays the pressure applied to it.
Each sensor is attached to electrodes that turns the pressure levels into electrical pulses, similar to the human nerves that sends signals to the brain.
But Bao said they did not just leave it at that as another fascinating revelation taking it a step further by imitating the healing properties of the skin. Yes, the plastic can heal itself when torn.
Not wanting to spill the beans on how it’s done, Bao hinted that this property depends on how the molecules are designed for the plastic, which varies in its responses from as fast as a minute to as long as several days for the recovery process,
They were also able to make the plastic stretchable to as much as eight times its original length.
Scientists are close to fully closing the gaps in powering the plastic skin with a nano polymer that can convert light to electricity.
Image Credit: Zhenan Bao – Bao Research Group
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