Tag Archives: Renee Kroon

Connecting nerves to electronics with soft gold

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Gold nanowires that are tissue-like? That’s how this nanogold composite is described in a research paper from researchers at Linköping University (Sweden). Before getting to a link and citation for the paper, here’s an announcement about the work in an August 6, 2024 news item on ScienceDaily,

Gold does not readily lend itself to being turned into long, thin threads. But researchers at Linköping University in Sweden have now managed to create gold nanowires and develop soft electrodes that can be connected to the nervous system. The electrodes are soft as nerves, stretchable and electrically conductive, and are projected to last for a long time in the body.

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An August 6, 2024 Linköping University press release (also on EurekAlert), which originated the news item, provides context for the research,

Some people have a “heart of gold”, so why not “nerves of gold”? In the future, it may be possible to use this precious metal in soft interfaces to connect electronics to the nervous system for medical purposes. Such technology could be used to alleviate conditions such as epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, paralysis or chronic pain. However, creating an interface where electronics can meet the brain or other parts of the nervous system poses special challenges.

“The classical conductors used in electronics are metals, which are very hard and rigid. The mechanical properties of the nervous system are more reminiscent of soft jelly. In order to get an accurate signal transmission, we need to get very close to the nerve fibres in question, but as the body is constantly in motion, achieving close contact between something that is hard and something that is soft and fragile becomes a problem”, says Klas Tybrandt, professor of materials science at the Laboratory of Organic Electronics at Linköping University, who led the research.

Researchers therefore want to create electrodes that have good conductivity as well as mechanical properties similar to the softness of the body. In recent years, several studies have shown that soft electrodes do not damage the tissue as much as hard electrodes may do. In the current study, published in the journal Small, a group of researchers at Linköping University have developed gold nanowires – a thousand times thinner than a hair – and embedded them in an elastic material to create soft microelectrodes.

“We’ve succeeded in making a new, better nanomaterial from gold nanowires in combination with a very soft silicone rubber. Getting these to work together has resulted in a conductor that has high electrical conductivity, is very soft and made of biocompatible materials that function with the body,” says Klas Tybrandt.

Silicone rubber is used in medical implants, such as breast implants. The soft electrodes also include gold and platinum, metals that are common in medical devices for clinical use. 
However, making long, narrow gold nanostructures is very difficult. This has so far been a major obstacle, but the researchers have now come up with a new way to manufacture gold nanowires. And they do it by using silver nanowires.

As silver has unique properties that make it a very good material to create the kind of nanowires that the researchers are after, it is used in some stretchable nanomaterials. The problem with silver is that it is chemically reactive. In the same way that silver cutlery will discolour over time when chemical reactions occur on the surface, silver in nanowires breaks down so that silver ions leak out. In a high enough concentration, silver ions can be toxic to us.

It was when Laura Seufert, a doctoral student in Klas Tybrandt’s research group, was working on finding a way to synthesize, or “grow”, gold nanowires that she came up with a new approach that opened up new possibilities. At first, it was difficult to control the shape of the nanowires. But then she discovered a way that resulted in very smooth wires. Instead of trying to grow gold nanowires from the beginning, she started with a thin nanowire made of pure silver.

“As it’s possible to make silver nanowires, we take advantage of this and use the silver nanowire as a kind of template on which we grow gold. The next step in the process is to remove the silver. Once that’s done, we have a material that has over 99 per cent gold in it. So it’s a bit of a trick to get around the problem of making long narrow gold nanostructures,” says Klas Tybrandt.

In collaboration with Professor Simon Farnebo at the Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences at Linköping University, the researchers behind the study have shown that the soft and elastic microelectrodes can stimulate a rat nerve as well capture signals from the nerve. 

In applications where the soft electronics are to be embedded in the body, the material must last for a long time, preferably for life. The researchers have tested the stability of the new material and concluded that it will last for at least three years, which is better than many of the nanomaterials developed so far.

The research team is now working on refining the material and creating different types of electrodes that are even smaller and can come into closer contact with nerve cells.

The research has been funded with support from, among others, the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research, the Swedish Research Council, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation and through the Swedish Government’s strategic research area in advanced functional materials, AFM, at Linköping University.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Stretchable Tissue-Like Gold Nanowire Composites with Long-Term Stability for Neural Interfaces by Laura Seufert, Mohammed Elmahmoudy, Charlotte Theunis, Samuel Lienemann, Yuyang Li, Mohsen Mohammadi, Ulrika Boda, Alejandro Carnicer-Lombarte, Renee Kroon, Per O.Å. Persson, Aiman Rahmanudin, Mary J. Donahue, Simon Farnebo, Klas Tybrandt. Small DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202402214 First published: 30 June 2024

This paper is open access.

A use for fullerenes—inside insulation plastic for high-voltage cables

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A Jan. 27, 2015 news item on Nanowerk, describes research which suggests that there may a new use for buckminsterfullerenes (or what they’re calling ‘carbon nanoballs’),

Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology [Sweden] have discovered that the insulation plastic used in high-voltage cables can withstand a 26 per cent higher voltage if nanometer-sized carbon balls are added. This could result in enormous efficiency gains in the power grids of the future, which are needed to achieve a sustainable energy system.

The renewable energy sources of tomorrow will often be found far away from the end user. Wind turbines, for example, are most effective when placed out at sea. Solar energy will have the greatest impact on the European energy system if focus is on transport of solar power from North Africa and Southern Europe to Northern Europe.

“Reducing energy losses during electric power transmission is one of the most important factors for the energy systems of the future,” says Chalmers researcher Christian Müller. “The other two are development of renewable energy sources and technologies for energy storage.”

The Jan. 27, 2015 Chalmers University of Technology press release (also on EurekAlert) by Johanna Wilde, which originated the news item, provides more information about the research,

Together with colleagues from Chalmers and the company Borealis in Stenungsund, he [Müller] has found a powerful method for reducing energy losses in alternating current cables.  The results were recently published in Advanced Materials, a highly ranked scientific journal.

The researchers have shown that different variants of the C60 carbon ball, a nanomaterial in the fullerene molecular group, provide strong protection against breakdown of the insulation plastic used in high-voltage cables. Today the voltage in the cables has to be limited to prevent the insulation layer from getting damaged. The higher the voltage the more electrons can leak out into the insulation material, a process which leads to breakdown.

It is sufficient to add very small amounts of fullerene to the insulation plastic for it to withstand a voltage that is 26 per cent higher, without the material breaking down, than the voltage that plastic without the additive can withstand.

“Being able to increase the voltage to this extent would result in enormous efficiency gains in power transmission all over the world,” says Christian Müller. “A major issue in the industry is how transmission efficiency can be improved without making the power cables thicker, since they are already very heavy and difficult to handle.”

Using additives to protect the insulation plastic has been a known concept since the 1970s, but until now it has been unknown exactly what and how much to add. Consequently, additives are currently not used at all for the purpose, and the insulation material is manufactured with the highest possible degree of chemical purity.

In recent years, other researchers have experimented with fullerenes in the electrically conductive parts of high-voltage cables. Until now, though, it has been unknown that the substance can be beneficial for the insulation material.

The Chalmers researchers have now demonstrated that fullerenes are the best voltage stabilizers identified for insulation plastic thus far. This means they have a hitherto unsurpassed ability to capture electrons and thus protect other molecules from being destroyed by the electrons.

To arrive at these findings, the researchers tested a number of molecules that are also used within organic solar cell research at Chalmers. The molecules were tested using several different methods, and were added to pieces of insulation plastic used for high-voltage cables. The pieces of plastic were then subjected to an increasing electric field until they crackled. Fullerenes turned out to be the type of additive that most effectively protects the insulation plastic.

The press release includes some facts about buckyballs or buckminsterfullerenes or fullerenes or C60 or carbon nanoballs, depending on what you want to call them,

 Facts: Carbon ball C60

  • The C60 carbon ball is also called buckminsterfullerene. It consists of 60 carbon atoms that are placed so that the molecule resembles a nanometer-sized football. C60 is included in the fullerene molecular class.
  • Fullerenes were discovered in 1985, which resulted in the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1996. They have unique electronic qualities and have been regarded as very promising material for several applications. Thus far, however, there have been few industrial usage areas.
  • Fullerenes are one of the five forms of pure carbon that exist. The other four are graphite, graphene/carbon nanotubes, diamond and amorphous carbon, for example soot.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the research paper,

A New Application Area for Fullerenes: Voltage Stabilizers for Power Cable Insulation by Markus Jarvid, Anette Johansson, Renee Kroon, Jonas M. Bjuggren, Harald Wutzel, Villgot Englund, Stanislaw Gubanski, Mats R. Andersson, and Christian Müller. Advanced Materials DOI: 10.1002/adma.201404306 Article first published online: 12 DEC 2014

© 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

This paper is behind a paywall.

Here’s an image of wind turbines, an example of equipment which could benefit greatly from better insulation.,

Images: Lina Bertling, Jan-Olof Yxell, Carolina Eek Jaworski, Anette Johansson, Markus Jarvid, Christian Müller

Images: Lina Bertling, Jan-Olof Yxell, Carolina Eek Jaworski, Anette Johansson, Markus Jarvid, Christian Müller

You can find this image and others by clicking on the Chalmers University press release link (assuming the page hasn’t been moved). You can find more information about Borealis (the company Müller is working with) here.