The United States has developed fibers that emit and detect sound waves.

Release date: 2010-07-22

For centuries, "artificial fiber" refers to the raw materials of clothes and ropes. In the information age, the meaning of fiber has become the glass filament carrying data in the communication network. However, for Yule Fink, an associate professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Electronic Research Laboratory, the fibers used in textiles or fiber optics are too passive. Over the past decade, his laboratory has been working to develop fibers with more advanced properties to allow fabrics to interact with their surroundings.
In the latest issue of Nature Materials, Fink and its collaborators announced a new and distinctive functional fiber: a fiber that detects and produces sound. Applications for such fibers include: garments that can be made into a microphone that captures speech or monitor bodily functions; or a fine monofilament that measures blood flow or brain pressure in the capillaries.
The core of the new fiber is a plastic containing asymmetric molecules. Ordinary optical fibers are made from "preforms", which are a large cylindrical single material that can be heated, drawn and cooled. In contrast, the fibers developed by Fink Labs are carefully geometrically arranged in several different materials to keep them intact during the heating and stretching process.
At the heart of the new acoustic fiber is a plastic that is commonly used in microphones. The fluorine content of this plastic allows researchers to ensure that their molecules are in an unbalanced state, that is, both fluorine and hydrogen atoms, even during heating and stretching. This asymmetry of the molecule gives the plastic "piezoelectricity", which means that when an electric field is applied to it, it changes shape.
In a conventional piezoelectric microphone, an electric field is generated by a metal electrode. However, in a fiber microphone, the stretching process causes the metal electrodes to lose their shape. Therefore, the researchers replaced it with a conductive plastic containing graphite. Conductive plastics produce a dense liquid when heated, thereby maintaining a higher viscosity than metal electrodes. This not only prevents the mixing of the material, but more critically, it also gives the fiber a normal thickness.
After the fiber is stretched, the researchers need to arrange all the piezoelectric molecules in the same direction. At this point, you need a powerful electric field (20 times stronger than the electric field that triggers lightning in a thunderstorm). Because the fiber is very narrow anywhere, it creates a tiny lightning ball that destroys the surrounding material.
Wide range of sound fibers Although the manufacturing process requires such a delicate balance, researchers can still make such functional fibers in the laboratory. If you connect them to a power source and apply a sinusoidal current (a very stable alternating current), the fibers will vibrate. If you vibrate it at the audio frequency and bring it closer to your ear, you can hear different notes or sounds. In the paper "Nature·Materials", the researchers measured the acoustic properties of the fibers more rigorously. Since water conducts sound better than air, they place the fiber in a water tank opposite the standard sound energy converter, which alternately emits sound waves that the fiber can detect, as well as the sound emitted by the fiber. Sound waves.
Researchers hope to eventually combine the performance of these experimental fibers into a single fiber. For example, strong vibrations can alter the optical properties of the reflective fiber, allowing the fiber fabric to communicate optically. In addition to wearable microphones and biosensors, the fiber applications include a network that monitors the flow of water in the ocean and a high-resolution, large-area sonar imaging system. Fabrics made from this acoustic fiber are equivalent to millions of tiny fabrics. Acoustic sensor. The researchers say that using the same mechanism, piezoelectric elements can in turn turn electricity into motion.

Source: Technology Daily

Customrized Lewin brand medical pendants;

The Surgical Pendant  has been fully validated, quality can be tested by using;

Lewin Medical Pendant provides ideal and high performance work environment for medical staff;

At the same time, Our hospital use pendant aim is to make patient comfort;

The medical pendant can be customrized to meet the different needs and for future upgrades;

Can choose column, single arm, double arms;

can choose column or head type;

Flexible choice to increase gas outlet, power socket, quantity of data port and type;

Single Arm Manual Medical Pendant

Manual Cavascope Pendant,Manual Surgical Pendant,Manual Ceiling Pendant,Surgical Steel Pendant

Shandong Lewin Medical Equipment Co., Ltd. , https://www.operatinglight.nl