Silly Putty Can Be Used As Sensor For Measuring Heart Rate, Blood Pressure And More

Silly Putty is usually regarded as a toy for children, which is exactly what it is marketed as. However, when combined with graphene, the kids’ toy suddenly starts exhibiting astonishing qualities. One of these includes becoming a potential sensor thanks to its acquired quality of being able to conduct electricity.

AMBER is a research center in Ireland hosted at Trinity College Dublin, and it’s where researchers managed to discover the rather exciting result related to silly putty and graphene.  The research was led by Professor Jonathan Coleman from Trinity College and he collaborated with Professor Robert Young from the University of Manchester, Phys.org reports.

According to Prof. Coleman, this discovery has some staggering implications, especially when it comes to the use of an affordable material in the creation of medical hardware. This was evident when the researchers tried measuring blood pressure and breathing using the silly putty treated with graphene and it responded with astonishing sensitivity.

The scientists decided to call the resulting item “G-putty” and it is so sensitive that it can even measure tiny impacts that are generated by the movements of a spider. Prof. Coleman and his colleagues are particularly excited about what it can do in other fields such as fitness trackers or even weight loss.

“The electrical resistance of the G-putty was very sensitive to deformation with the resistance increasing sharply on even the slightest strain or impact,” Prof. Coleman explained. “Unusually, the resistance slowly returned close to its original value as the putty self-healed over time."

Even just basing its effects on the medical industry, the simple fact is that G-putty is more sensitive than some modern sensors by a factor of 500, Popular Science notes. This means that more accurate readings could be gained from a children’s toy costing a few bucks than expensive equipment worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.