An exciting new development could have applications in many arenas, with the University of Michigan announcing progress on a conductive material that will carry a charge when stretched to over twice its length.

The engineering researchers have discovered a new technique to achieve the incredible result; embedding spherical nanoparticles of gold into a sheet of polyurethane, the spheres reportedly form a chain-like bond when stretched which maintains electrical conductivity.

A softer and more pliable conductive material could be used in a great many applications; everything from bendable displays, batteries and flexible electronics to medical implants which can conform and move with the body.

Without stretching, the layer-by-layer material with five gold layers has a conductance of 11,000 Siemens per centimetre (S/cm), on par with mercury, while five layers of the filtered material came in at 1,800 S/cm, close to some good plastic conductors. Astoundingly, when pulled to more than twice its original length it still conducted at 2,400 S/cm. Stretched to an unprecedented 5.8 times original length the material had an electrical conductance of 35 S/c – still enough for some applications.

The University of Michigan report ‘Stretchable nanoparticle conductors with self-organized conductive pathways’ is available here.