Application
A flexible smart skin that changes its color in response to heat or sunlight.
Key Benefits
- Strain-accommodating.
- Thermal and photothermal responsive.
- Light responsive.
- Highly stretchable.
Market Summary
The color-changing, chameleon-inspired, “smart skin” material in this disclosure is a type of smart hydrogel. The market for smart hydrogels was valued at $13.2 million in 2013 and was expected to reach $220 million by 2019 (BCC Research AVM023E). Furthermore, this invention, strain-accommodating smart skin (SASS), is made of nanoparticles and nanoclay. The global nanocomposites market is expected to reach $7.3 billion by 2022 from $2 billion in 2017 at a CAGR of 29.5% from 2017-2022 (NAN021H). SASS can potentially be used for military, consumer, and industrial applications.
Technical Summary
Researchers have developed a novel flexible smart skin which changes its color in response to heat and sunlight. The researchers designed a strain-accommodating smart skin (SASS) which was composed of two types of hydrogels. The responsive photonic crystal (PC) layer is composed of monodispersed Fe(3)O(4)@SiO(2) particles organized systematically and confined within a cross-linked poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (pNIPAM) polymer). Finally, the robust supporting layer was composed nanoclay (Laponite XLG) doped tetra-polyethylene glycol (PEG).
Developmental Stage
Early-stage.
Publication:
Chameleon-Inspired Strain-Accommodating Smart Skin ACS Nano 2019, 13, 9, 9918–9926
Website
https://emoryott.technologypublisher.com/techcase/20020
Contact Information
TTO Home Page: https://emoryott.technologypublisher.com
Name: Catherine Murari-Kanti
Title: Licensing Associate
Email: cmurari@emory.edu
Phone: (404) 727-0057