Silly Putty Makes For Super-Sensitive Sensors (popsci.com) 33
Jonathan Coleman's research group at Trinity College Dublin discovered that Silly Putty "becomes an incredibly sensitive strain detector that can track blood pressure, heart rate, and even a spider's footsteps" when mixed with graphene. Popular Science reports: That graduate student, Connor Boland -- who has since earned his doctorate -- made a batch of graphene in water and added the Silly Putty polymer. As he mixed them, the graphene sheets stuck to the polymer, creating a black goo the researchers dubbed "g-putty." When they ran an electrical current through the g-putty -- graphene-infused polymers can conduct electricity -- they discovered an extraordinary sensitivity. "If you touch it even with the slightest pressure or deformation, the electrical resistance will change significantly," Coleman says. "Even if you stretch or compress the Silly Putty by one percent of its normal size, the electrical resistance will change by a factor of five. And that's a huge change." That change makes g-putty about 500 times more sensitive than other deformation-detecting materials, which would respond to a similar compression with a mere one-percent change in electrical resistance. The results were published in the journal Science.
Useful (Score:5, Insightful)
This sounds more practical that the typical announcement about 'breakthrough in carbon shaped like a sheet/tube/ball'. It doesn't require ultra-pure, pristine, 1cm by 1cm by 1 atom, made-from-the-ashes-of-the one-pure-angel type graphene. It's boring 'let's have the undergrads play around with carbon so they feel like their doing real science' quality graphene. That's pretty awesome, and makes this far more likely to go from a lab experiment to a practical invention with patents, profits, and benefits to daily life.
Re:Useful (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:YES ! (Score:5, Funny)
But still, very sensitive material that reacts to inputs by a magnitude of 5. I've been married to this material for three decades and didn't know it. Also, graphene (100x strong as steel, magnetic) interlaced by silly putty is a good description of the wife.
Re: (Score:2)
I've been married to this material for three decades and didn't know it. Also, graphene (100x strong as steel, magnetic) interlaced by silly putty is a good description of the wife.
That might not be a good thing. FTFA:
"If you touch it even with the slightest pressure or deformation, the...resistance will change significantly,"
Heart rate? Added benefit (Score:4, Funny)
Unintention pun (Score:3)
The normal color of Silly Putty in stores is a light tan color, but adding graphene makes it black... and then they named it "G-Putty". I find that most amusing.
Re: (Score:2)
I... don't get it. What's the pun? The G- reminds you of... G-force, G-string, G-spot, G-whizz, some other G-word?
Re:worlds best researcher (Score:5, Informative)
"...mixed stuff into silly putty and came up with a bunch of bullshit..."
Silly Putty was the Darling of Nuclear Physicists and Chemists everywhere... for instance, it can be shaped by hand in order to tailor its Neutron Absorption properties. (B-10, ~3800 Barns; B-11, ~0.005 Barns, Thermal Neutrons.) Since the Manhattan Project days, it has been collectively known as "Monkey Shit"; collectively because "Silly Putty" is more of a Concept than a specific Formula- Silicone Oils plus Stuff.
Out of the Egg, it can be used as a quick and dirty Vacuum Sealant on flexible devices, such as leaky Welded Bellows, or a plug of it can serve as a Vacuum Seal/Pressure Release Valve. Under Vacuum it retains most of its interesting properties- a blob of it can hold small tools such as Allen Wrenches in place, and mixed with extra Silicone Oil, its damping properties can be tailored to taste. Working in some Asbestos makes it more rigid... well, they don't do that much these days...
It is a very good Liquid Nitrogen insulator or sealer, and because it can't burn, was used with Liquid Oxygen as well. Pure, it has very high Electrical Resistance, and a thin sheet of it can hold off quite high Voltages.
Although usually bought in Egg form, it is available in a number of formulations by the ton. We often bought in 10 Kilogram boxes; priced according to formulation and purity, much of it directly from Dow Corning. (DC705 or HVG, plus Stuff.) For building a temporary Shielding wall, we just left it in brick form and stacked them. (We used to use Boric Acid in plastic bags; unfortunately there are conditions under which the plastic rapidly disintegrated; a Boric Acid spill was usually benign but slippery as hell.)
"Silly Putty" is Silicone based, thus the "Silly", but many a Grad Student has experimented with other Vacuum Greases or Oils, such as Apiezon or Krytox/Fomblin... which can be magnitudes of orders more expensive... and when Fomblin goes Bad, it goes very Bad indeed.
"...he discovered that conductive material in a elasomer (sic) changes resistance..."
Hey, Bozo No-No, read the fucking article; here's the pertinent part from the Summary:
"...That change makes g-putty about 500 times more sensitive than other deformation-detecting materials..."
Your Reading Comprehension is as appalling as your usage of the English Language.
Silly Putty was miraculous (Score:5, Funny)
I can still recall the day I learned that you could copy a frame from the Sunday comics by pressing silly putty onto it. I thought that was the coolest thing ever.
Any time they want to mix it with graphene and inject it into my blood stream, I'm ready. I haven't seen a piece of Silly Putty in decades, but I can still recall its smell vividly. I loved that stuff. I think my childhood dog Smokey ate an entire Silly Putty once and crapped it out unchanged. I think it still had the image of Smokey Stover on it.
Microphone? (Score:2, Interesting)
If it's that sensitive to air pressure changes, maybe it would make a good microphone?
EM Resonance and Radio Morphology Serialization (Score:1)
Wouldn't this apply to electromagnetic resonance as well? Per example, if you 3d print a shape that is embedded with graphene or other semi-conductive materials and then charged that object, wouldn't each shape have a discrete frequency? Couldn't those frequencies be identified and mapped to achieve a component serialized awareness of when different components in a printed structure are either electrically charged or even when individual component's have their shapes modified?
Endless possibilities for DIY projects (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3)
That seems somewhat essential to the story, yet neither the post nor TFA explains it.
Found the Millennial.
Superconductive? (Score:3)
So if the resistance reacts that strongly to changes in shape, is there some physical configuration that will cause it to become superconductive? Or is the change in resistance only while the deformation is occurring, and snaps back to original once the putty assumes steady state in its new shape?