openMaterials

More interesting news from Stanford University’s research on carbon nanotubes, via a Printed Electronics World article: Ordinary textiles could be transformed into batteries that hold up to three times more energy than a mobile phone battery, by simply dipping them into nanoparticle-infused ink. Conventional batteries are made by coating metallic foil in a particle slurry and [...]

Teaching Resources at Middlesex University (MUTR) is a UK-based online store with a mission to support technology teachers. They provide wonderful materials at affordable prices: from expancel, carbon nanotubes, SMAs, SMPs, photochromic and thermocromic materials, paper-making sets, to motors, solar panels, electronic components, as well as traditional materials such as paper, wood, and metal - [...]

Shi Yuan’s creative wallpaper incorporates thermochromic paint that changes color as the temperature rises. The sequence below shows how it reacts to heat coming from the radiator (via dornob). Yuan’s calendar uses this same material to make the date fade away as day turns into night.

Using conventional screen printing techniques Dai Nippon Printing in Japan have developed a way of using light emitting inks that can be printed on a range of different surfaces, including paper and fabric. The ink works with a lumniescent get which emits bright light when a voltage is applied to it. The technique generates pixels [...]

Royal College of Art students Becky Pilditch, Matt Johnson, Isabel Lizardi and Bibi Nelson took the concept of skin-as-the-new-interface to a new level with “Bare,” a body paint that conducts electricity. The non-toxic ink transforms skin into a highly conductive surface, providing a low resistance contact between the surface of the skin and an electrode. [...]

One of our main research interests here at openMaterials is pulp-based computing, an approach that involves embedding electronics, electro-active inks, conductive threads and other smart materials directly into handmade paper pulp. Marcelo Coelho and Pattie Maes are doing some very interesting and beautiful work at MIT’s Fluid Interfaces Group.