Dr. Yu Zhu of the University of Akron thinks that he and his team have a solution. Current screens are coated in indium tin oxide, a completely transparent substance that's also electrically conductive. Unfortunately indium tin oxide is relatively brittle and prone to shattering, not to mention expensive. Dr. Zhu's team created an alternative that retains the same conductive properties while being more flexible, resisting the impact forces that can shatter conventional screens.
Zhu, along with professor Darrell Reneker and graduate students Tianda He and Aozhen Xia, published a basic explanation of the new material in the ACS Nano journal. It uses an electrode mesh in between layers of polymer to retain conductivity without the brittle properties of ITO. According to Dr. Zhu, the material will eventually become a competitor to the current manufacturing process, solving the problem of cracked screens "once and for all."
Source: http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/0...able-alternative-to-smartphone-glass-coating/
Zhu, along with professor Darrell Reneker and graduate students Tianda He and Aozhen Xia, published a basic explanation of the new material in the ACS Nano journal. It uses an electrode mesh in between layers of polymer to retain conductivity without the brittle properties of ITO. According to Dr. Zhu, the material will eventually become a competitor to the current manufacturing process, solving the problem of cracked screens "once and for all."
Source: http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/0...able-alternative-to-smartphone-glass-coating/