Jul 23 2007
Standard conductors like metal wires can be bent and twisted but if you try and stretch them, they tend to break. In order to produce things like the advanced robots shown in the movie Transformers, the wiring and other components would need to flex and stretch to accomodate the dramatic shape shifting of these machines.
A team of chemists and engineers have now developed a material they call metal rubber that has the conductivity of copper but can stretch to ten times its length. Using nanotechnology, the material is built up in a series of flat layers only one molecule thick. The researchers have used the same technology to produce a conductive fabric that has the resilience of woven fabrics and is also fully washable.
The material can be seen in the following video: