Artificial fast-adapting mechanoreceptor based on carbon nanotube percolating network.

Most biological sensors preferentially encode changes in a stimulus rather than the steady components. However, intrinsically phasic artificial mechanoreceptors have not yet been described. We constructed a phasic mechanoreceptor by encapsulating carbon nanotube film in a viscoelastic matrix supported by a rigid substrate. When stimulated by a spherical indenter the sensor response resembled the response of fast-adapting mammalian mechanoreceptors. We modelled these sensors from the properties of percolating conductive networks combined with nonlinear contact mechanics and discussed the implications of this finding.

pH driven addressing of silicon nanowires onto Si3N4/SiO2 micro-patterned surfaces.

pH was used as the main driving parameter for specifically immobilizing silicon nanowires onto Si3N4 microsquares at the surface of a SiO2 substrate. Different pH values of the coating aqueous solution enabled to experimentally distribute nanowires between silicon nitride and silicon dioxide: at pH 3 nanowires were mainly anchored on Si3N4; they were evenly distributed between SiO2 and Si3N4 at pH 2.8; and they were mainly anchored on SiO2 at pH 2. A theoretical model based on DLVO theory and surface protonation/deprotonation equilibria was used to study how, in adequate pH conditions, Si nanowires could be anchored onto specific regions of a patterned Si3N4/SiO2 surface. Instead of using capillary forces, or hydrophilic/hydrophobic contrast between the two types of materials, the specificity of immobilization could rely on surface electric charge contrasts between Si3N4 and SiO2. This simple and generic method could be used for addressing a large diversity of nano-objects onto patterned substrates.

Framework for the analysis of nanotechnologies' impacts and ethical acceptability: basis of an interdisciplinary approach to assessing novel technologies.

The genetically manipulated organism (GMO) crisis demonstrated that technological development based solely on the law of the marketplace and State protection against serious risks to health and safety is no longer a warrant of ethical acceptability. In the first part of our paper, we critique the implicitly individualist social-acceptance model for State regulation of technology and recommend an interdisciplinary approach for comprehensive analysis of the impacts and ethical acceptability of technologies. In the second part, we present a framework for the analysis of impacts and acceptability, devised-with the goal of supporting the development of specific nanotechnological applications-by a team of researchers from various disciplines. At the conceptual level, this analytic framework is intended to make explicit those various operations required in preparing a judgement about the acceptability of technologies that have been implicit in the classical analysis of toxicological risk. On a practical level, we present a reflective tool that makes it possible to take into account all the dimensions involved and understand the reasons invoked in determining impacts, assessing them, and arriving at a judgement about acceptability.

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) based strain sensors for a wearable monitoring and biofeedback system for pressure ulcer prevention and rehabilitation.

This paper presents an overview of the functioning principles of CNTs and their electrical and mechanical properties when used as strain sensors and describes a system embodiment for a wearable monitoring and biofeedback platform for use in pressure ulcer prevention and rehabilitation. Two type of CNTs films (multi-layered CNTs film vs purified film) were characterized electrically and mechanically for potential use as source material. The loosely woven CNTs film (multi-layered) showed substantial less sensitivity than the purified CNTs film but had an almost linear response to stress and better mechanical properties. CNTs have the potential to achieve a much higher sensitivity to strain than other piezoresistors based on regular of conductive particles such as commercially available resistive inks and could become an innovative source material for wearable strain sensors. We are currently continuing the characterization of CNTs based strain sensors and exploring their use in a design for 3-axis strain sensors.