A group of researchers from University of Michigan has used Japanese paper cutting techniques to produce a new type of flexible conductor. By applying the technology called kirigami, the resulting gadgets would be able to bend, flex, fold and transform.

It will happen for the first time that we will be able to even think of gadgets that could bend and even transform. The researchers have even performed demonstration of the first prototype of the kirigami stretchable conductor.

The conductor was covered in graphene nanotubes. Nicholas Kotov, the Joseph B. and Florence V. Cejka Professors of Engineering said, “The kirigami method allows us to design the deformability of the conductive sheets, whereas before it was very Edisonian process with a lot of misses and not a lot of hits”.

The researchers said that the technology can help change the way upcoming gadgets can look. The device can found a use in medicine like in implantable medical devices. The technique could add to new innovation in batteries.

ASU leader Dr. Jiang was of the view that the kirigami-based methodology can really prove beneficial when it comes to expanding its use in other applications like developing highly stretchable devices.

Flexible batteries in future gadgets could lead to thinner devices and extra space could be used to add more battery into it.