Une nouvelle technologie pour les uñas longues : l'esmalte conducteur

Les uñas longues et les postiches créent des problèmes pour les femmes qui utilisent des écrans tactiles. Dans la plupart des cas, il est impossible de faire fonctionner ces écrans sans tourner son doigt, utiliser la phalange ou appuyer sur la pulpe du doigt. Cela peut sembler anecdotique, mais c'est un problème que beaucoup de femmes rencontrent quotidiennement.

Une solution proche grâce à des chimistes

Manasi Desai, étudiante en chimie et biologie au Centenary College of Louisiana, a travaillé avec son tuteur, le chimiste Joshua Lawrence, pour résoudre ce problème. Ils ont créé un esmalte transparent qui permet de utiliser l'ongle comme point de contact sans perdre de précision sur les écrans.

Ces chercheurs ont essayé 13 émaillures commerciales et plus de 50 additifs until they found a functional combination. They discovered that the best results came from a combination of taurine, a naturally occurring compound found in the human body and common in energy drinks, and ethanolamine, an organic molecule of common access. While ethanolamine provided conductivity and good compatibility with the enamel, it also had toxicity. Taurine, on the other hand, was innocuous but left a slightly opaque finish.

Combining the two generated a formula capable of registering as a touch on a smartphone screen, which the team considers a promising first step towards a real solution.

Previous attempts in this field had relied on carbon nanotubes or metal particles, which were dangerous to produce and tinted the enamel black or silver, eliminating any possibility of personalization. The proposed solution by Desai and Lawrence takes a completely different approach, using chemistry rather than inherent conductors. They hypothesize that the mechanism works through acid-base chemistry. When the enamel comes into contact with the electric field of the screen, the protons jump between the molecules of the additives, altering the capacitance of the surface just enough for the device to interpret it as a touch.