Transparent Hydrogel Can Cancel Noise, Function as Muscle

Sep-01-13 By combining a hydrogel with a conductive polymer, researchers have created a transparent, artificial muscle also has potential in noise cancelling technology.

The team at Harvard University created the hydrogel by combining the chemical polyacrylamide with salt water. The polyacrylamide molecules joined to build a lattice structure with the open spaces occupied by the salt ions. Then, they coated both sides of a piece of elastic adhesive tape with a thin layer of the hydrogel, creating a three-layered material with the tape serving as insulation. When the team attached a copper electrode to each end of the layered material and ran a current through, the sheet extracted and contracted depending on the amount of voltage. Pinching or squeezing the sheet, or vibrations in response to sound, also caused it to generate a small current.

The transparent sheet could act as a noise-cancelling layer by vibrating in response to loud sounds, which would cause it to generate an electric current that would then produce another signal to cancel out the sound.

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[DISCOVERY.COM]
[HARVARD UNIVERSITY]

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