A Japanese professor has developed rubber that accumulates the energy of light and mechanical vibrations.

Kunio Shimada, Professor of Hydromechanics and Energy Fukushima University (Japan) has developed a new type of rubber that converts both solar energy and the kinetic energy of mechanical vibrations into electricity. The author says that this is the first material of this kind in the world.

Such rubber can be widely used in many areas. For example, as artificial leather for robots, elastic body of phones and other electronic gadgets. Such a body will not only shock-proof, but also be able to accumulate energy from each vibration or fall. In the same quality (impact resistance) material can be used in robotics. Rubber with charging from the sun and vibrations is convenient to use for powering multikopter, cars, prostheses and other wearable electronics.

Robotic companies have already shown interest in the invention of the 53-year-old professor, reports The Japan Times .

Kunio Shimada is a real expert on electrically conductive rubber, he has a number of discoveries in this and related fields. For example, at one time he invented a liquid from dissolved (melted) magnets - the so-called Magnetic Compound Fluid. In general, the professor has dozens of scientific papers, including 95 scientific articles published since 1991, including 89 in English . As far as can be understood from the names, all these works are devoted to magnetic compounds , that is, a different variant of electrically conductive liquids and solutions. In other words, the professor has been specializing in one research topic for 26 years - and has achieved significant progress here.
')
The most cited scientific work of the professor is the effect of magnetic field mixing (doi: 10.1016 / S0304-8853 (02) 01497-X).

The new substance is formed from natural rubber. Generally, in industry, rubber is obtained from natural or synthetic rubber by vulcanization by mixing with a vulcanizing agent (usually sulfur) followed by heating. But the professor changed the process to electrify the mixture — and obtained material with an extremely high electrical conductivity.

According to Shimada, he was inspired by his colleague Hideki Shirakawa, Professor Emeritus of the University of Tsukuba, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2000 for his discovery of conductivity in polymers . Prior to this invention, it was considered that plastic was not capable of conducting electrical current. About the same misconceptions regarding rubber wants to dispel the chemist from Fukushima.

Electrically conductive polymers can combine the mechanical properties of plastics (flexibility, strength, ductility, elasticity, etc.) with high electrical conductivity. Their properties can be precisely adjusted using special methods of organic synthesis. Many of the advantages of electrically conductive polymers also apply to rubber, which is also capable of storing electricity when exposed to sunlight and vibrations.

Electrically conductive rubber has several advantages over traditional photocells, which are usually very fragile and inflexible. In contrast, rubber can expand or contract when exposed to sunlight, generating electricity.

“This material provides potential for future applications in previously unimaginable areas,” said Cimada. “This technology inspires big dreams.”

According to a government official from Fukushima Prefecture, who is responsible for promoting robotics, Shimada technology can completely change the design and specifications of robots.

In April 2018, the prefecture plans to open a testing ground for the Fukushima Robot Test Field in Minamis. It is hoped that the professor’s electrically conductive rubber will also be included in the test program.

It can be added that according to some characteristics such vibration absorbing rubber is similar to the fictional material vibranium from the Marvel Universe. As you know, in the new version this material had a unique ability to absorb sound, and in fact the sound represents the vibrations of air. A variety of vibranium found in the isolated African country of Wakanda absorbs sound waves and other vibrations, including kinetic energy, which makes this metal stronger. From the vibranium was made the shield of Captain America and the shape of the Black Panther.