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| A demo of the hydrogel condoms - A still from Youtube video |
Staff Correspondent, August 3, 2015, NewsCrunch
Researchers at the University of Wollongong in Australia are developing new generation condoms which will offer more lifelike experience than the latex condoms currently available in the market.
ABC Net Australia reports that biomedical engineer Dr Robert Gorkin and his team at the University’s Intelligent Polymer Research Institute are tinkering around with hydrogel, which feels like soft contact lens, to make condoms.
Hydrogel, while having similar mechanical properties as rubber, contains mainly water. So being soft and squishy, the condoms made of it will feel more like a second skin unlike the latex condoms, which feel like rubber gloves.
The research team was awarded a research grant last year by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to work on their project.
While their product is yet to be tested and there are manufacturing matters to be sorted out, the researchers say the cost of the new generation condoms would be similar to that of latex condoms.
Creating better condoms to beat latex is on the radar of scientists elsewhere too. Researchers in the US are working using silicone and collagen to achieve exactly what Dr Gorkin and his team are trying to do.