MATERIALS THAT WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING
From the surfaces of roads to the surface of our skin, the materials revolution is here
WORDS MARK MIODOWNIK
PLASTIC ELECTRONICS
COMPUTING
Electronics are moving away from being components connected by wires and becoming an intrinsic part of buildings, cars and clothing. The technology making this possible is plastic electronics. These are polymers – large molecules composed of repeating subunits – manipulated to conduct and store electricity. With these, you can print circuits and even batteries, incorporating them into products as they are made.
A wearable circuit, transferred onto skin
At the moment, tattoos are purely decorative, but electronic tattoos are on their way. These are electronic circuits with built-in sensors, applied as transfers, that can stretch with the skin. They’ll enable us to interface with computers and robots by tapping our skin’s surface. They will also measure our temperature, the stretch of the skin and electric signals emitted from the body. In the future, we’ll be using them to monitor our health.