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Silly Putty Makes For Super-Sensitive Sensors (popsci.com)

Jonathan Coleman's research group at Trinity College Dublin discovered that Silly Putty "becomes an incredibly sensitive strain detector that can track blood pressure, heart rate, and even a spider's footsteps" when mixed with graphene. Popular Science reports: That graduate student, Connor Boland -- who has since earned his doctorate -- made a batch of graphene in water and added the Silly Putty polymer. As he mixed them, the graphene sheets stuck to the polymer, creating a black goo the researchers dubbed "g-putty." When they ran an electrical current through the g-putty -- graphene-infused polymers can conduct electricity -- they discovered an extraordinary sensitivity. "If you touch it even with the slightest pressure or deformation, the electrical resistance will change significantly," Coleman says. "Even if you stretch or compress the Silly Putty by one percent of its normal size, the electrical resistance will change by a factor of five. And that's a huge change." That change makes g-putty about 500 times more sensitive than other deformation-detecting materials, which would respond to a similar compression with a mere one-percent change in electrical resistance. The results were published in the journal Science.

2 of 43 comments (clear)

  1. Re:worlds best researcher by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    "...mixed stuff into silly putty and came up with a bunch of bullshit..."

    Silly Putty was the Darling of Nuclear Physicists and Chemists everywhere... for instance, it can be shaped by hand in order to tailor its Neutron Absorption properties. (B-10, ~3800 Barns; B-11, ~0.005 Barns, Thermal Neutrons.) Since the Manhattan Project days, it has been collectively known as "Monkey Shit"; collectively because "Silly Putty" is more of a Concept than a specific Formula- Silicone Oils plus Stuff.
    Out of the Egg, it can be used as a quick and dirty Vacuum Sealant on flexible devices, such as leaky Welded Bellows, or a plug of it can serve as a Vacuum Seal/Pressure Release Valve. Under Vacuum it retains most of its interesting properties- a blob of it can hold small tools such as Allen Wrenches in place, and mixed with extra Silicone Oil, its damping properties can be tailored to taste. Working in some Asbestos makes it more rigid... well, they don't do that much these days...
    It is a very good Liquid Nitrogen insulator or sealer, and because it can't burn, was used with Liquid Oxygen as well. Pure, it has very high Electrical Resistance, and a thin sheet of it can hold off quite high Voltages.

    Although usually bought in Egg form, it is available in a number of formulations by the ton. We often bought in 10 Kilogram boxes; priced according to formulation and purity, much of it directly from Dow Corning. (DC705 or HVG, plus Stuff.) For building a temporary Shielding wall, we just left it in brick form and stacked them. (We used to use Boric Acid in plastic bags; unfortunately there are conditions under which the plastic rapidly disintegrated; a Boric Acid spill was usually benign but slippery as hell.)

    "Silly Putty" is Silicone based, thus the "Silly", but many a Grad Student has experimented with other Vacuum Greases or Oils, such as Apiezon or Krytox/Fomblin... which can be magnitudes of orders more expensive... and when Fomblin goes Bad, it goes very Bad indeed.

    "...he discovered that conductive material in a elasomer (sic) changes resistance..."
    Hey, Bozo No-No, read the fucking article; here's the pertinent part from the Summary:
    "...That change makes g-putty about 500 times more sensitive than other deformation-detecting materials..."
    Your Reading Comprehension is as appalling as your usage of the English Language.

  2. Re:What is Silly Putty? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    "Silicone Putty", developed during WWII while searching for an artificial replacement for natural rubber. It turns out that mixing up some Silicone Oils with Boric Acid yields a non-hardening Putty with some very interesting unintended consequences. After the War, research continued on these consequences, while the original batches were sold off an ounce at a time as a Children's toy. There is much more about this above in the Comments; yours is hardly an original question. Or you could, you know, just...
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silly_Putty