Self-healing and Touch Sensitive Synthetic Skin

Researchers at Stanford University claim to have developed a plastic polymer that mimics two very important properties of the human skin, the ability to conduct electrical signals and the ability to repair itself. With this discovery smarter prosthetics and more resilient self-repairing electronics could be very close to being incorporated in new technologies.

In order to give the polymer the ability to self-repair the polymer had to be made up of long chains of molecules linked up via hydrogen bonds to provide weak attractions between differently charged regions of atoms. Because the molecules easily break apart and then reorganize to restore their original structure, the result is a flexible material that can restore it's structure within 30 minutes or being damaged. 

To replicate the skins ability to conduct signals tiny particles of nickle were placed in the polymer to strengthen the plastic and generate tiny electrical fields that enable current to easily flow from one particle to another.The material is also sensitive enough to detect the pressure of a handshake, whether that pressure be downward or flexing, meaning a prosthetic limb could detect the actual degree of bend in a joint.

This article is extremely interesting to me because the skin is the largest organ we have and is the most critical organ in protecting the body. With skin being so hard to replicate the advances being made in synthetic skin synthesis is bringing us closer to helping those that rely on prosthetics.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57548594-76/new-e-skin-is-sensitive-to-touch-and-self-healing/