14 DAY TRIAL // We all like to doodle, especially if we're bored out of our minds or if we really, really don't want to use our brains and fingers to get some work done. Well, the good news is that, as it turns out, doodlers are not necessarily slackers.
On the contrary, those who spend precious minutes drawing intricate lines and patterns on otherwise perfectly average sheets of paper should be credited with putting together very simple sensors. Just as long as they use regular pencils to create their work, that is.
What do paper and pencils have to do with sensors?
In a study recently published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials, specialists at the University of Science and Technology in China explain that, having carried out a series of experiments in laboratory conditions, they found that pencil-drawn lines on a sheet of paper can act as sensors.
The scientists go on to detail that, although not all that impressive technology-wise, these sensors can reveal twists and bends in the very paper supporting them. If this paper is placed on a specific surface and made to take its shape, the sensors can zoom in on the physical properties of this surface.
As explained in the journal Advanced Functional Materials, drawing or writing with a pencil boils down to putting thin layers of graphite, i.e. the stuff pencil leads are made from, on paper. When the paper is bent or twisted, so are these layers of graphite on it.
If disturbed in this manner, the layers no longer let electricity move through them at a steady pace. What this means is that, by documenting shifts in the resistance of the graphite layers on a sheet of paper, it becomes possible to document bents and twists in the paper. This makes the graphite a sensor.
The University of Science and Technology researchers behind this series of experiments say their very simple graphite-on-paper sensors need merely two batteries voltage of 3V to work and can detect not just structural changes but also motion, Phys Org informs.
Potential uses for these innovative graphite sensors
The Chinese scientists say that, although further research is needed, there may come a day when sensors like the ones they created and tested in laboratory conditions will be added to wearable or portable devices designed to detect motion or other physical changes.
“The pen-on-paper (PoP) approach may further develop portable, environmentally friendly, and economical lab-on-paper applications and offer a valuable method to fabricate other multifunctional devices,” the researchers write in the Abstract to their paper in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.