UoH team develops unbreakable, multi-utility glass

Hyderabad: A team of researchers from the University of Hyderabad (UoH) have developed an optically transparent flexible composite material having a wide range of usage in practical applications.

The newly developed material is unbreakable, almost invisible and has long-lasting durability.  The optically transparent flexible composite material (glass) has been fabricated at the Advanced Material and Nanomechanical and Microwave Sensors (NEMS) Laboratory in the School of Engineering Sciences and Technology of UoH.

Speaking to The Hans India, head of the researcher's team and an Assistant Professor in the Advanced Materials and NEMS Lab Dr Raj Kishora Dash said that it was for the first time that the team has fabricated and developed an optically transparent flexible composite material. "The material is very flexible, and it could be easily bent, twisted and stretched," he said. 

Gunda Rajitha, a research scholar in the team, who has recently submitted her PhD thesis under his supervision, is the co-contributor for this work. The material could be utilised for the development of future transparent wearable sensors and biomedical devices, Dr Dash said. The application fields include automobile, electronic devices like electrocardiography (ECG) screening in the field of medicine.

Dr Dash said that the optically transparent flexible materials possess high dielectric constant which allows application in flexible electronics devices, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), wearable sensors and biomedical devices.

Maintaining optical transparency and electrical properties together is a big challenge since a higher volume percentage of the filler material is generally required for enhancement in the electrical properties. As a result, the optical transparency of the flexible material degrades. 

Dr Dash added that the research team at the UoH is very excited about this development and our group is actively working in this area to fabricate transparent wearable sensors for different applications like transparent keyboard, switches, transparent touch sensor, bio-medical sensors and more to come.