It became possible to detect water leaks in communications with the help of paper.

Specialists at the American University in Washington have created smart paper that can conduct electricity and is able to inform about water leaks.

The complexity of creating instruments and technologies that identify water leaks is associated with the complex chemical structure of water. All those methods that exist at the moment are very expensive to use in everyday life.

The fundamentally new approach proposed by American experts is based on the coating of paper with special nano particles.

Paper with a unique nanosensitivity, was discovered by chance. Conducted one of the experiments, which involved a coating with LED-indicators. During the experiment, a drop of water accidentally fell on the paper. And immediately one of the indicators failed. The first reaction of scientists was the crushing of a failed experiment.However, very soon they realized that thanks to such an oversight, they were the authors of a unique invention - paper that reacts to the ingress of water.

The principle of operation of such paper is as follows. When water hits the surface, its fibers expand. Such an expansion pushes the nanomaterials present inside, destruction of the electrical connections occurs, the LED indicator goes out. The advantage of this process is in his reversibility. That is, as soon as the paper dries, it again becomes capable of catching the slightest changes in humidity.

Such an invention can be very useful in production. The paper is able to detect a leak and signal it to the head office via a wireless network. At the same time, there is no need to change the production cycle due to such an innovation - nanoparticles can be added to absolutely any paper coating that is already available.