Researchers create shatterproof smartphone screens

It's a smartphone owner's nightmare: seeing his or her gadget become useless after its touchscreen gets shattered.

 

That may soon change, after scientists at the University of Akron in Ohio developed a transparent electrode that could make smartphone displays shatterproof.

 

“We expect this film to emerge on the market as a true ITO competitor. The annoying problem of cracked smartphone screens may be solved once and for all with this flexible touchscreen," Yu Zhu, UA assistant professor of polymer science, said in a news release issued by the university.

 

Zhu's co-researchers included UA graduate students Tianda He and Aozhen Xia, and Darrell Reneker, distinguished professor of polymer science at UA.

 

Presently, the UA noted touchscreens use indium tin oxide (ITO) coatings but these are brittle and "most likely to shatter" - and costly to make.

 

But the UA researchers demonstrated how their creation - a transparent layer of electrodes on a polymer surface - could be tough and flexible.

 

The layer endured "repeated scotch tape peeling and bending tests," and if brought to market, Zhu said this could "revolutionize" and replace conventional touchscreens.

 

Zhu added the new film provides the same transparency as ITO, but with greater conductivity.

 

Also, he said the film retained its shape and functionality after being bent 1,000 times in tests.

 

With its flexibility, the transparent electrode can potentially be manufactured en masse at lower cost.

 

“These two pronounced factors drive the need to substitute ITO with a cost-effective and flexible conductive transparent film,” he said.

 

The team’s findings were published in the American Chemical Society’s journal ACS Nano. — Joel Locsin/TJD, GMA News