Tattoos are incredibly common nowadays. And they are also getting bigger. At the same time, naturally, tattoo removal services are getting more popular as well. What if you could have a temporary tattoo that would attract attention and could also serve other functions?
Scientists at UCL and the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) have developed a temporary light-emitting tattoo.
OLED tattoos are very thin and can be applied with a dab of water just like normal temporary tattoos. Image credit: UCL
OLED – that’s a word you’ve seen in the tech industry. OLED, or organic light-emitting diodes, is a popular display technology, which changes the way the screen is lit, allowing for black colours to be darker and the image overall – sharper. OLED TVs first appeared around 20 years ago and are still being developed today.
Scientists developed a way to paste OLEDs onto a human skin using a temporary tattoo technology. OLEDs are glued to a temporary tattoo paper and then pasted onto a skin normally using just a little dab of water. Of course, even used as a tattoo OLEDs could emit light, which is quite cool and stylish, but scientists are thinking about practical uses of this kind of technology.
For instance, tattooed OLEDs could be wired so that they would get lit when an athlete is dehydrated. They could also light up when we are getting too much sun or when a patient needs medical attention. They could even be glued on other surfaces, such as packages and fruit.
Tattooed OLEDs would be very cheap and thin (just 2.3 micrometres thick in total) and could be wired to light up to highlight ads or expiration dates or something. But, of course, scientists are not rejecting the idea that they would be used for fashion reasons mostly.
The OLED tattoo consists of an electroluminescent polymer, which is just about 76 nanometres thick, sandwiched between electrodes together with a layer of commercial tattoo paper. Polymer that thin was created using a special technique called spin coating. Polymer is applied to a substrate, which is then spun really fast. Eccentric force spreads the polymer, making it very thin. It is then processed to make the electronic tattoo.
Virgilio Mattoli, senior author of the study, said: “Tattoo electronics is a fast-growing field of research. At the Italian Institute of Technology we have previously pioneered electrodes that we have tattooed onto people’s skin that can be used to perform diagnostic tests such as electrocardiograms. The advantage of this technology is that it is low-cost, easy to apply and use, and washes off easily with soap and water”.
Tattoos that emit light would be a nice modern fashion style. Especially because they would be temporary and quite cheap. But, of course, it is more important that scientists employ this technology in other areas, like food packaging. We will have to wait and see how it develops.
Source: UCL
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