Prospects for developing smart surgical gloves

The idea of a smart, elastic material that fits snugly with the hands of a surgeon can soon be realized as US and Chinese scientists have discovered how to convert semiconductor materials into rigid form. Electronic soft plastic.

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Intelligent surgical gloves

"The biggest challenge is to combine a hard and brittle material such as silicon that exists in flat electronics into a soft, thin and bendable system," says John Rogers, materials engineer. at the University of Illinois, said. To do that, Rogers and his colleagues at Northwestern University and Dalian University of Technology in China transformed the silicon material into nanoparticles 10,000 times thinner than the thickness of the hair.

Next, they cut the film into fine threads and pressed them onto a thin rubber film. This technique allows the entire material to 'flex, twist, bend and cover curved surfaces' without damaging the silicon material. This flexible silicon wafer is then covered with a finger-shaped crust and experts can flip it inward so that the electrons can touch the wearer's skin. These include materials capable of transmitting information to humans (such as vibration) and sensors for measuring contact pressure.

The team has developed and tested a type of ' heart ' socks - the smart material that is expected to lead to the birth of a medical glove that not only enhances the sensation of contact It also allows surgeons to 'feel' electrical activities related to the health of the heart. In addition, experts say that flexible electronic materials can also help create other health monitoring devices such as body temperature control and risk of dehydration.