Scientists Have Invented Shatterproof Screens For Smartphones
To make the touchscreen of your smartphone shatterproof, scientists have developed a transparent electrode that could change the face of smartphones, literally, by making their displays completely shatterproof.
By Sadho Ram — 08 Jun 2014, 03:12 PM — Updated over 10 years ago
Smartphones are amazing. Until you accidentally drop them. And their screens shatter. And suddenly, they are not that amazing.
But thankfully, scientists from the University of Akron have discovered a solution to save these fragile screens of our amazing smartphones
In their research published in the journal ACS Nano, lead researcher Yu Zhu, assistant professor of polymer science at University of Akron, and his team claim to have created a transparent electrode that could make phones shatterproof.
geekosystem.com
They've developed transparent electrodes that, when layered on polymer surfaces, are just as transparent as current technology but much more durable
Unlike current smartphone touch-screens which are coated with a brittle indium tin oxide, Zhu and co.'s solution would be more durable and more flexible than current options. At the same time, it would also be just as transparent and possibly more conductive, potentially making the surface even more responsive to finger-swipes.
geekosystem.comBy coating a polymer surface with a transparent layer of electrodes, the team was able to dramatically improve surface toughness and flexibility.
policymic.com"In addition to state of art performance, the transparent electrodes also exhibit outstanding toughness," according to the study's abstract. "They can withstand repeated scotch tape peeling and various bending tests. The method for making the metal nanowire is scalable, and a touch screen on flexible substrate is demonstrated."
uakron.edu
You can bend them over 1,000 times without breaking, and they also hold up against peeling. More importantly, the technology is cheap.
In fact, the university believes that it should be less expensive to make this film than the touchscreen tech in use today; you can simply mass-produce it in rolls. While there's no firm production timetable, scientists fully expect their technology to hit stores in the future.
bgr.in
This should be good news for both the smartphone industry and smartphone buyers, a new, less expensive, stronger material to make each other happier
However, if you believe those who say companies purposely produce inferior products to keep you paying year after year, then the manufacturers may not be so pleased with Zhu's work. Either way, this is a welcome scientific advancement for the clumsier among us.
policymic.com